breathing room
16
3.8
- noun
- /ˈbriːðɪŋ ruːm/
- I need a little breathing room.
- give breathing room
- little breathing room
- bit of breathing room
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Watch on YouTubeFrankly, they could use a little breathing room at this point.
- Frankly, they could use a little breathing room at this point.
- I paid it all off in within a year and had like breathing room.
- The people that let allow the breathing room in the relationship and let the words make somebody come to them.
Examples
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Most debtors, municipal or otherwise, seek federal bankruptcy protection to gain breathing room from creditors and restructure their obligations.
Academic text (2018) -
After negotiating with our landlord, we finally got some breathing room to work on needed repairs in the apartment.
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Now, we have an opportunity to buy ourselves breathing room.
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A strike here provides some breathing room.
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Give me some breathing room.
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I wanted to tell you, but I thought you should have some breathing room first.
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Frankly, they could use a little breathing room at this point.
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I think we can give creatives some breathing room to make something really beautiful.
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It gives everybody some breathing room, right?
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The extra funding provided the non-profit with breathing room to expand its programs and reach more families in need.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
Space available to do something or to move
1
3.5
A short time to rest or think when you feel pressure
Antonyms
How Spacious
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase 'breathing room' literally combines 'breathing' (the act of inhaling/exhaling) and 'room' (space), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it means having space or freedom to act or think. This spatial-to-figurative metaphor ('space to breathe') is common and cross-linguistically transparent, making the expression understandable to B1 learners without prior exposure.
Etymology
Breathing room comes from the clear image of needing space to breathe: when people are crowded they cannot take a full breath, so making a little room lets them breathe more easily. That's why the phrase means 'enough space or freedom to act or think' today.