breath - Wiktionary, the free dictionary (original) (raw)

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

From Middle English breeth, breth, from Old English brǣþ (“odor, scent, stink, exhalation, vapor”), from Proto-West Germanic *brāþi (“vapour, waft, exhalation, breath”) (compare German Brodem (“haze, vapor; breath”), of a different but related formation).[1]

breath (countable and uncountable, plural breaths)

  1. (uncountable) The act or process of breathing.
    I could hear the breath of the runner behind me.
    The child's breath came quickly and unevenly.
    • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
      Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
  2. (countable) A single act of breathing in or out; a breathing of air.
    I took a deep breath and started the test.
    • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.
    • 2012 December 26, John Branch, “Snow Fall: The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek”, in The New York Times‎[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 14 November 2013:
      She knew from avalanche safety courses that outstretched hands might puncture the ice surface and alert rescuers. She knew that if victims ended up buried under the snow, cupped hands in front of the face could provide a small pocket of air for the mouth and nose. Without it, the first breaths could create a suffocating ice mask.
  3. (uncountable) Air expelled from the lungs.
    I could feel the runner's breath on my shoulder.
  4. (countable) A rest or pause.
    Let's stop for a breath when we get to the top of the hill.
  5. A small amount of something, such as wind, or common sense.
    Even with all the windows open, there is hardly a breath of air in here.
    If she had a breath of common sense, she would never have spoken to the man in the first place.
  6. (obsolete) Fragrance; exhalation; odor; perfume.
  7. (obsolete) Gentle exercise, causing a quicker respiration.

act or process of breathing

single act of breathing in and out

air expelled from the lungs

rest or pause

Translations to be checked

breath (not comparable)

  1. (phonetics, of a consonant or vowel) voiceless, surd; contrasting with voice (breath sounds, voice sounds)

breath

  1. Misspelling of breathe.
    In the polar regions one finds dark cold waters with few places to breath.
  1. ^ Kroonen, Guus (2013), “*brēan-”, in Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 11)‎[1], Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, pages 74–75: “*bʰréh₁-e- (GM)”
  2. ^ Dobson, E[ric] J. (1957), English pronunciation 1500-1700‎[2], second edition, volume II: Phonology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, published 1968, →OCLC, § 30, page 502.

breath f (genitive singular breithe, nominative plural breitheanna)

  1. alternative form of breith (“birth; lay; bearing capacity; bringing, taking; seizing; catching, overtaking”)

breath f (genitive singular breithe, nominative plural breitheanna)

  1. alternative form of breith (“judgment, decision; injunction”)

Mutated forms of breath

radical lenition eclipsis
breath bhreath mbreath

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

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