Coughing and breaking in (7)
I believe the answer is:
hacking
'coughing' is the definition.
(hacking is a kind of coughing)
'breaking in' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'in' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'and' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hacking that I've seen before include "way of accessing computer system" , "Gaining unauthorised access to computer data" , "Striking" , "Riding, coughing" , "Cutting" .)