What is the action called when a grumpy old man shows that he is annoyed, by making a 'throat-clearing' sound?

Question

Sometimes when a grumpy old man gets annoyed, he makes noises like clearing his throat. Does grumbling or grunting define that action? Is there a more appropriate word or an idiom for that?

Answer 1

Sometimes when a grumpy old man gets annoyed, he makes noises like clearing his throat. Does grumbling or grunting define that action?

Grumble:

• definitely not. That consists of complaining words, it is not a sound.

Grunt:

• close, but that isn't it. Grunt doesn't include throat-clearing, and it is an inhalation.

Is there a more appropriate word or an idiom for that?

Yes.

Growl.

• Done properly, it is deep in the throat.

• The best growl is accomplished with the mouth closed, as a harsh exhalation, through the nose only. No work is done in the nose, all the work is in the lower throat, vibrating it. The deeper the better.

• A poor growl is high in the throat, see harrumph below.

• A growl is a purposeful act, not due to accident or sickness.

• Young men used to be able to do it.

Grunt

• is high in the throat, and can be accomplished almost completely in the nose and mouth, that is, without involving the throat. The best grunt is actually a heavy inhalation, with the nostrils and the back of the mouth loose, so that it vibrates with the air flow.

• Animals grunt and growl.

Harrumph

• is close, but distinctly different, it doesn't have that full throat-clearing sound that men can make, from deep in their throats.

• I would describe harrumph as an amateur or beginner growl. It is more of a sound of displeasure, whereas growl is a serious threat.

Wheeze

• has a proper meaning, the sound a person makes when they have emphysema, or when their windpipe is opened by some horrible injury.

• It is accomplished as an inhalation, a strained one, with the throat contracted, or closed with a hole somewhere that is open. It causes alarm.

• Men who can growl on demand can usually wheeze on demand, and it is just as scary to women and children, but for different reasons, a growl being a threat and wheeze being an alarm.

• For others, the wheeze is involuntary, due to accident or sickness.

I know one woman who, after she got past the fear of my purposeful wheeze, wanted to learn how to do it. Now she can wheeze much higher than I can, women's voices being higher, and all that. But she can't growl, much as she tried.

Don't concern yourself with what writers write, they are making a royal mess of the English language. They are hardly an authority, and they commonly misuse words. And that is separate to the use of the literary device: the purposeful use of incorrect words, to connote something.

Answer 2

harrumph /həˈrʌmf/ verb; gerund or present participle: harrumphing

1. clear the throat noisily
   
   • grumpily express dissatisfaction or disapproval.
     "skeptics tend to harrumph at case histories like this"

He harrumphed and said, ‘I am deeply obliged’.

(from Google)

Answer 3

One possibility:

wheezed his annoyance

transitive verb : to utter with a sound of wheezing [breathe with difficulty with a usually audible sibilant or whistling sound ]

In Darkness Waiting John Shirley - 2013

The old man wheezed his amusement. He shifted to accommodate his bags. “You think you workfor yourself, huh?