sigh of relief
37
2.1
- noun
- /saɪ ʌv rɪˈlif/
:
suspiro de alivio
- Internet users are breathing a collective sigh of relief tonight.
- breathe a sigh of relief
And I think there was this like, sigh of relief in the tennis world.
- And I think there was this like, sigh of relief in the tennis world.
- And, and it's, and it's, we do breathe this sigh of relief when someone comes along and says that.
- So it was just still, still stressful and it was a big sigh of relief for me.
- But as soon as you said they were female, I felt a sigh of relief.
- And it's just like, oh, you can feel the whole world start to take a sigh of relief.
- And, you know, people breathed a sigh of relief and said, OK, great, now we have community gardens.
- And now I and my fellow Harvard Horizon Scholars can breathe a sigh of relief.
- And all those people, the rich and powerful, have breathed a sigh of relief when Epstein died suddenly in prison.
- It felt like, you know, sigh of relief.
Examples
-
We breathed a sigh of relief when we glimpsed a light at the corner.
Fiction book (1994) -
Val breathes a big sigh of relief and sprints to the bulldozer.
Fiction book (1990) -
There was a great sigh of relief.
-
London will breathe a sigh of relief.
-
But I think that once she is safe in the van, then the whole town can just breathe a sigh of relief.
-
Diana let out an unconscious sigh of relief as she closed the door behind her.
Fiction book (1992) -
Hector stops the car outside Janet's house and lets out a sigh of relief.
Fiction book (1993) -
The lock opened to Lando's touch, and he breathed a sigh of relief as the outer door cycled closed.
Fiction book (1991) -
College lobbyists, for example, will probably breathe a sigh of relief if some Obama-era regulations fall by the wayside.
Academic text (2017) -
After hearing the good news, she let out a sigh of relief.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A long soft breath you let out when you feel tired or sad
How Deep
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is transparently built from 'sigh' (an audible breath expressing feeling) and 'relief' (the easing of pain or worry); a B1 learner who knows both constituents can readily infer it means a sigh that expresses relief. The linking preposition 'of' is grammatical only, and this compositional pattern is cross-linguistically common, so the meaning is immediately accessible.
Etymology
The noun sigh of relief comes from the simple picture of someone breathing out loudly after a scary or worried moment. They make a long sigh and feel relief, so the phrase means 'feeling comfort after worry'.