breathing

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of respiration.
2. n. A single breath.
3. n. The time required to take one's breath.
4. n. Either of two marks, the rough breathing ( ̔ ) and the smooth breathing ( ̓ ), used in Greek to indicate presence or absence of aspiration.
5. n. The presence or absence of aspiration indicated by either of these marks.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air: as,“a difficulty of breathing,”
2. n. Aspiration; secret prayer or desire.
3. n. Aërial motion; respiratory action.
4. n. Figuratively, a gentle influence or operation; inspiration:as, the breathings of the Spirit.
5. n. A breathing-place; a vent.
6. n. Physical exercise, from the fact that it calls the lungs into free play: as, the Oxford crew took their breathings every morning at ten.
7. n. Utterance; words.
8. n. Time taken to recover breath; hence, a stop; a delay.
9. n. In grammar, aspiration or its absence, or a sign indicating it. In Greek there are two breathings—the aspirate (spiritus asper) or the rough breathing, indicated by a mark (‘)equivalent to our letter h, and the lenis (spiritus lenis) or the smooth breathing (’), indicating simply the absence of the rough. Thus òς is equal to hos, but ìς to is.

Wiktionary

1. v. present participle of breathe.
2. n. The act of respiration; a single instance of this.
3. n. A diacritical mark indicating aspiration or lack thereof.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air.
2. n. Air in gentle motion.
3. n. Any gentle influence or operation; inspiration.
4. n. Aspiration; secret prayer.
5. n. Exercising; promotion of respiration.
6. n. Utterance; communication or publicity by words.
7. n. Breathing place; vent.
8. n. Stop; pause; delay.
9. n. Also, in a wider sense, the sound caused by the friction of the outgoing breath in the throat, mouth, etc., when the glottis is wide open; aspiration; the sound expressed by the letter h.
10. n. A mark to indicate aspiration or its absence. See Rough breathing, Smooth breathing, below.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. passing or able to pass air in and out of the lungs normally; sometimes used in combination
2. n. the bodily process of inhalation and exhalation; the process of taking in oxygen from inhaled air and releasing carbon dioxide by exhalation