throat-clearing noun2 •A forcible, sometimes muted, expulsion of air from one's lungs, sometimes to clear mucus, sometimes to attract attention to something; less vigorous than a cough.Colds, with their subsequent sneezing, coughing, hemming, nose-blowing, and throat-clearing, begin to be the order of the day, with the ushering in of cold and damp November days. — 1887 •A performative or formal preamble before a statement.This is a comic poem—an exercise in throat-clearing, or a cranking up of the speech organs: […] — 1970
