To investigate the meanings of the sigh, after overviewing preliminary analyses of written and oral corpora, the paper focuses on a peculiar use of it as a “discrediting body comment” often exploited in political debates to imply the opponent’s stupidity or obsessive repetition, by displaying frustration or boredom. In a perception study on some uses of this sigh, participants’ interpretations are not significantly shared, but agreement emerges when considering their perception of sighs in terms of valence and arousal.