/ pænt; NAmE / verb
to breathe quickly with short breaths, usually with your mouth open, because you have been doing some physical exercise, or because it is very hot :
[ v ]
She finished the race panting heavily.
She could hear him panting up the stairs (= running up and breathing quickly) .
He found her panting for breath at the top of the hill.
[also v speech ]
► pant noun [ usually pl. ]:
His breath came in short pants.
—see also pants
•
IDIOMS
see puff verb
•
PHRASAL VERBS
- pant for / after sb/sth
••
WORD ORIGIN
Middle English : related to Old French pantaisier be agitated, gasp, based on Greek phantasioun cause to imagine, from phantasia imagination, appearance , later phantom , from phantazein make visible.