to breathe

Examples

• All

• I move and breathe and have my being.

• We're just being and breathing and existing.

  Variety

• I live in them, I breathe in them.

  A Good Year (2006)

• Listen, guys, the second you breathe your first breath, you won.

• As I live and breathe.

  Late Checkout (2023)

• In the midst of a year like none other, may we pause to breathe and simply be.

• As long as you're still breathing, it's never too late to start.

• Nurtured the hope that there was hope... that one day I'd breathe free air.

  The Rock (1996)

• Father Sun sent us tumbling to Earth and breathed life into us.

  Fiction book (1990)

• In the quiet of the forest, I felt truly alive, able to breathe freely and appreciate nature.

Synonyms

L

to live

vsto breathe

∞ 1.0

To continue to be alive

is a literary way to mean mere existence rather than everyday survival

R

to respire

vsto breathe

1 6.0

To breathe in and out to take in oxygen and let out carbon dioxide

speaks of existing or simply being alive in a poetic or literary sense

B

breathing

vsto breathe

1.0

Showing signs of life by moving air in and out of the lungs

focuses on existing or being alive rather than the biological airflow process

Antonyms

D

to die

∞ 1.0

To stop living and no longer be alive

P

to perish

• Formal

121 6.0

To die suddenly or violently, often in large numbers

Idioms

B

to breathe a word

• Informal

12 6.3

To tell someone a secret that should be kept

B

to breathe a sigh of relief

• Informal

12 2.5

To feel very relieved after a time of worry

L

to live and breathe

• Informal

9 4.8

To be very excited about something and always make it a main part of life

B

to breathe one's last

• Literature

2 7.9

To stop living

Phrasal Verbs

B

to breathe in

54 1.0

To take air into your lungs through your nose or mouth

B

to breathe down someone's neck

• Informal

14 7.5

To watch or pressure someone closely so they feel nervous

B

to breathe out

8 1.0

To push air out of your lungs

B

to breathe easy

• Informal

5 3.4

To feel relaxed and relieved after a worrying time

How Alive

to thrive

241 3.2

to flourish

116 4.1

to breathe

• Literature

228 7.4

struggle

466 3.2

to die

∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

Morphology

Etymology