breathe S3 W3 /briːð/ BrE AmE verb
[ Word Family: noun : ↑ breath , ↑ breather , ↑ breathing ; adjective : ↑ breathless , ↑ breathy ; verb : ↑ breathe ; adverb : ↑ breathlessly ]
[ Date: 1200-1300 ; Origin: breath ]
1 . AIR [intransitive and transitive] to take air into your lungs and send it out again:
The room filled with smoke, and it was becoming difficult to breathe.
People are concerned about the quality of the air they breathe.
Relax and breathe deeply (=take in a lot of air) .
2 . BLOW [intransitive and transitive] to blow air or smoke out of your mouth
breathe on
Roy breathed on his hands and rubbed them together vigorously.
breathe something over somebody
The fat man opposite was breathing garlic all over me.
3 . somebody can breathe easy/easily used when saying that someone can relax because a worrying or dangerous situation has ended:
With stocks going up, investors can breathe easily.
4 . breathe a sigh of relief to stop being worried or frightened about something:
Once the deadline passed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.
5 . be breathing down sb’s neck informal to pay very close attention to what someone is doing, in a way that makes them feel nervous or annoyed:
How can I concentrate with you breathing down my neck all the time?
6 . not breathe a word to not tell anyone anything at all about something, because it is a secret:
Don’t breathe a word; it’s supposed to be a surprise.
7 . breathe life into something to change a situation so that people feel more excited or interested:
Critics are hoping the young director can breathe new life into the French film industry.
8 . SKIN [intransitive] if your skin can breathe, air can reach it
9 . CLOTHES/FABRIC [intransitive] if cloth or clothing breathes, air can pass through it so that your body feels pleasantly cool and dry
10 . WINE [intransitive] if you let wine breathe, you open the bottle to let the air get to it before you drink it
11 . SAY SOMETHING QUIETLY [transitive] written to say something very quietly, almost in a whisper:
‘Wait,’ he breathed.
12 . breathe your last (breath) literary to die
13 . breathe fire to talk and behave in a very angry way ⇨ live and breathe something at ↑ live 1 (19)
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COLLOCATIONS
■ adverbs
▪ breathe deeply (=take long slow breaths of air)
She breathed deeply in the cool night air.
▪ breathe heavily/hard (=breathe loudly especially after exercise)
He’d been running and he was breathing hard.
▪ breathe fast/rapidly (=breathe quickly because of illness, fear etc)
He closed his eyes, breathing fast under the fever.
▪ breathe slowly
Breathe slowly and try to relax.
▪ breathe steadily/evenly
The baby was fast asleep and breathing steadily.
▪ breathe easily
Make sure the injured person can breathe easily.
■ nouns
▪ breathe some air/the air
It was wonderful to be outside and breathe some fresh air.
▪ breathe fumes
These children are breathing traffic fumes all day long.
■ phrases
▪ can hardly breathe
It was so hot that I felt as though I could hardly breathe.
▪ have trouble/difficulty breathing
In high altitudes some people have trouble breathing.
▪ struggle to breathe
The crowd pressed in around me and I struggled to breathe.
• • •
THESAURUS
▪ breathe [intransitive and transitive] to take air into your lungs and send it out again:
Mary knew he was asleep because he was breathing deeply.
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He breathed the clear spring air.
▪ sigh to breathe out slowly and make a noise that shows you are disappointed, tired, ↑ relieved etc:
She just sighed and shook her head.
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‘Never mind,’ he sighed. ‘I’m sure there’ll be other opportunities.’
▪ pant to breathe quickly and noisily through your mouth, because you have been using a lot of effort:
They were panting by the time they got to the finish line.
▪ gasp to breathe very quickly and deeply and with difficulty:
Her eyes were wide, and she was gasping for breath.
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‘Do you think you can walk?’ ‘I’ll try to,’ he gasped.
▪ snore to breathe noisily while you are sleeping:
I couldn’t sleep because my husband was snoring.
▪ wheeze to breathe with difficulty, making a noise in your throat and chest, because you are ill:
His asthma was making him wheeze.
▪ be out of breath to be unable to breathe easily, especially because you have been running or doing other exercise:
I was out of breath by the time we reached the top of the hill.
▪ be short of breath to be unable to breathe easily, especially because you are unhealthy:
Because she was so overweight, she was often short of breath.
breathe in phrasal verb
to take air into your lungs ⇨ inhale :
The doctor made me breathe in while he listened to my chest.
breathe something ↔ in
Wyatt breathed in the cool ocean air.
breathe out phrasal verb
to send air out from your lungs ⇨ exhale :
Jim breathed out deeply.
breathe something ↔ out
Lauren lit up a cigarette, then breathed out a puff of smoke.