Meaning of breath in English

breath

noun

/breθ/ us

/breθ/

the air that goes into and out of your lungs:

out of breath He burst into the room, red-faced and out of breath (= unable to breathe comfortably because of tiredness or excitement).

short of breath She was dizzy and short of breath (= unable to breathe in enough air).

Her breath smelled of garlic.

catch your breath ( also get your breath, get your breath back)

to pause or rest for a short time until you can breathe comfortably or regularly again:

I had to stop running to catch my breath.

draw breath (also draw a breath)

to breathe:

Without pausing to draw breath she told me everything.

to pause for a short time between doing one thing and the next:

Give me a minute to draw breath, won't you?

hold your breath

to keep air in your lungs and not release it so that you need more:

How long can you hold your breath under water?

to wait for something to happen, often feeling anxious:

Fans held their breath waiting for the final whistle.

[ C ]

a single action of breathing air into your lungs

take a breath

to breathe air into your lungs (as a single action):

take a deep breath The doctor told me to take a deep breath (= breathe in a lot of air).

a breath of air

the smallest amount of wind:

There wasn't a breath of air in the room.

a short period of time spent outside:

I'm just going out for a breath of (fresh) air - I won't be long.

More examplesFewer examples

Her breath reeked of garlic.
I heard his breath rasping in his chest.
The disease may cause cold sweating, nausea, vomiting and shortness of breath .
She paused to get her breath back and then carried on jogging.
It's terribly smoky in here - I'm just going out for a breath of fresh air.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Animal physiology: breathing & stopping breathing

See more results »

Idioms

a breath of fresh air
in the same breath
take someone's breath away
under your breath
with your last/dying breath

(Definition of breath from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

breath | American Dictionary

breath

noun [ C/U ]

/breθ/

Add to word list Add to word list

the air that you take into and let out of your lungs:

[ C usually sing ] She drew/took a deep breath.

[ U ] He seemed a little out of breath (= to be breathing too fast).

[ C usually sing ] As he jumped in the pool, he held his breath (= delayed releasing the air in his lungs).

Idiom

a breath of fresh air

(Definition of breath from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of breath

breath

The peak inspiratory pressure, delivered breaths per minute, and thefractionof inspired oxygen all significantly increased during stemal closure.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The upper plot refers to data recorded during three 1-min periods when the author had eyes closed and was slowly counting his breaths to facilitate relaxation.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The test is initiated by the driver placing the sensor head in his / her mouth then taking a few deep breaths and blowing into the device.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The average was 15 breaths per minute.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Step 2 further decreases physiological arousal and engages the mind by focusing interest in the benign mental operations of attending to one's breaths and counting them.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

We held our breaths, quite correctly in the circumstances, and were passed fit to continue with our journey.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

After catching our breaths at their honesty, at least we could say that they had given a few honest, straightforward reasons for a change.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

One is tempted to use the word "catalyst" again, or, at least, shall we call it a temporary resting place, where hard-pressed officials can get their breaths back.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

I have encountered breaths of fresh air.

From the

Hansard archive

Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0

Anxiety was repor tedly par ticularly intense at night and linked to feelings of helplessness when spouses became acutely shor t of breath.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The actor also keeps attentive to the breath.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

When someone begins to feel anxious, breathing rhythms change from slow constant breaths to quick, short breaths (also known as hyperventilating).

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

The ventilator breaths are synchronized with patient inspiratory effort.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

As little as 3.53 ppm can be detected as an odor, and 1000 ppm is likely to be fatal after a few deep breaths.

From

Wikipedia

This example is from Wikipedia and may be reused under a CC BY-SA license.

See all examples of breath

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

What is the pronunciation of breath?