breather

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“
She saw the flickering night-light--she heard the ticking of the watch, and the two breathings, each going on at a separate rate--one hurried, abruptly stopping, and then panting violently, as if to make up for lost time; and the other slow, steady, and regular, as if the breather was asleep; but this supposition was contradicted by an occasional repressed sound of yawning.

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Definitions (11)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. noun One that breathes, especially in a specified manner: a shallow breather.
  2. noun Informal A short rest period: took a breather after skiing for two hours.
  3. noun Informal An activity, such as strenuous exercise, that causes difficult breathing.
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Examples (42)

  • Having a chance to take an extended breather, and learning that I could be more productive when I did so, reminded me of that fact.So there you have it.
  • I made it to the third floor before I had to stop for a breather, and I sat down to rest my aching leg for a moment. —  Butcher, Jim - Dead Beat (v1.0) (html).html
  • He said he went out for a quick breather, and took a picture of some children who went out for a few tense minutes to kick a ball around —  Palestine Blogs aggregator
  • That Cirque du Soleil has grown from Laliberté's lowly beginnings as a fire-breather, working the pavements of a small town, Baie-Saint-Paul, outside Quebec City, to having the monopoly on non-gambling or adult entertainment in the most overblown city on earth is the key to this weirdly schizophrenic company. —  The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
  • To Hamas, a "truce" = a "breather" - i.e. a time to regroup, re-stock, re-arm (through more hidden tunnels), re-position their launch points, collect weapons from the dead, decide on further tactics. —  TexasFred's
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Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
 

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/ˈbriðər/
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