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Glite Dictionary
to breathalyze

to breathalyze

1 7.2
To check how much alcohol a person has by testing their breath with a breathalyzer
  • verb
  • /ˈbrɛθəˌlaɪz/
  • Specialized
: realizar un análisis de aliento
  • Like it's been said, the person who had 3 beers and gets pulled over for rolling through a stop sign, then breathalyzed, will face over $10k in fines and possible jail time.

In fact, they would breathalyze you on stage and if you weren't legally drunk you had to leave the stage.

Examples

  • If you are involved in an accident, the police may breathalyze you to check for alcohol consumption.

  • We were breathalyzed before going in, which is ridiculous!

    Blog text (18)

  • In fact, they would breathalyze you on stage and if you weren't legally drunk you had to leave the stage.

    W Magazine

  • Do they really let you personally interview, fingerprint, and breathalyze the pilots?

    Blog text (1)

  • Another thing that bothers me is the fact that every student had to be breathalyzed.

    Blog text (18)

  • At Portsmouth's dance, if you looked suspicious, you got breathalyzed.

    Blog text (18)

  • The officer decided to breathalyze the driver after noticing his erratic behavior.

  • Before allowing anyone to drive, they will breathalyze everyone at the festival entrance.

Surface Forms

breathalyze infinitive
breathalyzed past
breathalyzed past participle
breathalyzing present participle
breathalyzes third person singular

Morphology

breathalyze = breathalyzer (transparent) = breath + alyze

The verb is formed by back-formation from the familiar noun 'breathalyzer', so learners who know the noun can readily infer the verb meaning 'to test with a breathalyzer'.

Etymology

Breathalyze comes from the words breath and analyze, so it literally means to 'analyze the breath'. That's why to breathalyze someone is to test their alcohol level with a breath test.