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BREATHLESS
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Appearing dead; not breathing or having no perceptible pulse
Example:
pulseless and dead
Synonyms:
breathless; inanimate; pulseless
Classified under:
Similar:
dead (no longer having or seeming to have or expecting to have life)
Derivation:
breathlessness (a dyspneic condition)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Not breathing or able to breathe except with difficulty
Example:
followed the match with breathless interest
Synonyms:
breathless; dyspneal; dyspneic; dyspnoeal; dyspnoeic
Classified under:
Similar:
asphyxiating (tending to deprive of oxygen)
smothering; suffocating; suffocative (causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat)
blown; pursy; short-winded; winded (breathing laboriously or convulsively)
Also:
unventilated (not ventilated)
Antonym:
breathing (passing or able to pass air in and out of the lungs normally; sometimes used in combination)
Derivation:
breathlessness (a dyspneic condition)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Tending to cause suspension of regular breathing
Example:
breathtaking adventure
Synonyms:
breathless; breathtaking
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
exciting (creating or arousing excitement)
Context examples:
Airway Questionnaire 20 (AQ20) Does gardening make you breathless?
(AQ20 - Gardening Make You Breathless, NCI Thesaurus)
No matter how breathless the air when he dug his nest by tree or bank, the wind that later blew inevitably found him to leeward, sheltered and snug.
(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)
"She told us such things! She knows all about us!" and they sank breathless into the various seats the gentlemen hastened to bring them.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
“Master Davy,” said Peggotty, untying her bonnet with a shaking hand, and speaking in a breathless sort of way.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Catherine sat down, breathless and speechless.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
Calling back the servant, therefore, she commissioned him, though in so breathless an accent as made her almost unintelligible, to fetch his master and mistress home instantly.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
Along it we hurried in breathless impatience for many hundreds of yards.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Airway Questionnaire 20 (AQ20) Does walking upstairs make you breathless?
(AQ20 - Walking Upstairs Make You Breathless, NCI Thesaurus)
Airway Questionnaire 20 (AQ20) Do you get breathless doing housework?
(AQ20 - Get Breathless Doing Housework, NCI Thesaurus)
There, dimly outlined at the top window, I could see the shadow of a head, a woman’s head, gazing tensely, rigidly, out into the night, waiting with breathless suspense for the renewal of that interrupted message.
(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
