unbreathing

8.0

Completely still and silent with no sound or movement

adjective
/ʌnˈbriːðɪŋ/

: inanimado

In the middle of the performance, the audience sat unbreathing in anticipation of the final act.

Your spring jacket will be too hot if you use a light outer fabric and then a really stuffy unbreathing polyester.

Examples

Your spring jacket will be too hot if you use a light outer fabric and then a really stuffy unbreathing polyester.

Zoe Hong
The forest was eerily unbreathing as all the creatures seemed to have vanished.
After the accident, the scene was unbreathing, silent, and filled with a sense of loss.

Synonyms

lifeless

vsunbreathing

28 3.4

Not moving and showing no signs of people or animals

focuses on motionlessness and silence as well as absence of breathing

silent as the grave

vsunbreathing

Literature

1 5.7

Completely quiet with no sound at all

stresses actual death or no breathing not only quietness

unbreathed

vsunbreathing

9.3

Not breathing and showing no signs of life

is broader, also describing stillness or figurative lifelessness

Antonyms

breathing

1.0

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

Surface Forms

unbreathing positive

Morphology

unbreathing = breathing (transparent) = un + breathe + ing

The prefix 'un-' productively negates the participle/adjective 'breathing', producing a clear opposite meaning.

Etymology

Unbreathing is made of un- ('not') and breathing (from 'breath' or 'to breathe'), so it literally means 'not breathing'. That's why we use unbreathing to describe a person or place that is completely still, silent, or lifeless.