breathe

Date:	1200-1300
Origin:	breath

breathe
verb

air

[intransitive and transitive] to take air into your lungs and send it out again:

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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).

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.

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.

breathe a sigh of relief

to stop being worried or frightened about something:

Once the deadline passed, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

be breathing down somebody'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?

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.

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.

skin

[intransitive] if your skin can breathe, air can reach it

clothes/fabric

[intransitive] if cloth or clothing breathes, air can pass through it so that your body feels pleasantly cool and dry

wine

[intransitive]DFD if you let wine breathe, you open the bottle to let the air get to it before you drink it

say something quietly

[transitive] written to say something very quietly, almost in a whisper:

'Wait,' he breathed.

➔ live and breathe something

at live1 (19)

WORD FOCUS: breathe

to breathe in: inhale formal
to breathe out: exhale formal
to breathe noisily: sniff, snore (when sleeping)
snort, sigh
to breathe with difficulty: gasp, pant, wheeze, be short of breath, be out of breath
to be unable to breathe: choke, suffocatebreathe ➔ respiration , lung