to breathe one's last
2
7.9
- idiom
- Literature
- The fissure all around her seemed to be breaking apart, and she was certain that she was about to breathe her last.
- breathed her last breath
Examples
-
Well, it has been just a year since Dolly breathed her last, Lucille thought.
Fiction book (1993) -
And where was her mother when poor Princess Charlotte breathed her last?
Fiction book (1991) -
The Chief knew he was breathing his last breath.
-
And where was I when he was breathing his last breath?
-
"We got to the end of Mass," Johnson recalled. "I said, 'Go in peace,' and he breathed his last."
Blog text (20) -
The fact that she was not present when her father breathed his last was something she desperately wanted to compensate for.
Blog text (29) -
He had been there when she breathed her last.
Fiction book (1993) -
He thanked God that he was saved, and within moments, breathed his last in the arms of one of my sailors.
-
Gustav breathed his last and shuddered to stillness on the cold stone.
Fiction book (1992) -
After a long illness, he finally breathed his last in the hospital.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
To stop living and no longer be alive
8
3.8
To die peacefully in a gentle, respectful way
2
8.1
To breathe for the last time before you die
2
9.9
To stop living and not come back
1
8.5
To stop living
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to die' is directly derivable from the parts: 'breathe' (to draw breath) combined with 'one's last' (final), yielding the obvious idea of taking a final breath. This is a transparent, compositional pattern (cf. 'take one's last breath' and equivalent expressions in many languages), so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words would likely infer the meaning.
Etymology
Breathe one's last comes from the simple image of someone taking their final breath: the word breathe means to take air and last shows it is the very final one. So the phrase means 'to die'.