to take one's breath away
33
4.1
- idiom
- Informal
:
dejar sin aliento
- The beauty of the sunset over the ocean can truly take one's breath away.
- so beautiful it takes your breath away
- beauty takes your breath away
- the sight takes your breath away
Examples
-
It took my breath away, this world they created.
-
The trees, the rushing river, it's enough to take your breath away.
Fiction book (1998) -
- After all these years, you still take my breath away.
-
Oh, you took my breath away tonight, honey.
-
The experience would take your breath away.
-
But then there are other times... when you just take my breath away.
-
Well, it takes my breath away...
-
You take my breath away!
-
The way the light hits those windows takes your breath away.
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Of course, we had never seen such mountains; they took my breath away.
Fiction book (1995)
Synonyms
294
1.0
To surprise someone very much
63
4.1
To amaze people with great skill, beauty, or clever ideas
50
6.2
To surprise someone a lot and make them feel excited
41
4.2
To surprise someone very much and make them feel amazed
39
4.2
To surprise someone so much that they do not know what to say
39
6.4
To hold someone's full attention as if by magic
37
3.6
To make someone feel very surprised and pleased
24
4.1
To fill someone with a feeling of respect and wonder, sometimes with fear, often caused by something impressive or beautiful
13
3.5
To surprise someone very much
7
3.8
Surprise someone very much
3
4.9
To make someone feel very surprised and impressed
2
8.1
To surprise someone suddenly and very strongly
1
4.4
To make someone feel very amazed and full of admiration
To surprise someone very much
To make someone very impressed or be much better than something
Make someone feel very impressed and strongly attracted
Antonyms
How Astonished
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression directly evokes the literal idea of someone having their breath removed (take + breath + away), so a learner can infer a strong physical reaction. However, the intended meaning is a metaphorical extension—causing astonishment or being awestruck—rather than a fully compositional, literal event, so the exact emotional sense may not be immediately predictable without exposure. Cross-linguistic parallels (e.g. French couper le souffle) increase inferability but it remains partly metaphorical.
Etymology
Take one's breath away comes from the image of being so surprised or moved that something seems to take your breath away, as if a sudden shock or a very beautiful sight stops you from breathing. That's why we now use it to mean 'to surprise or impress' someone very strongly.