breathing

• IPA^(key): /ˈbɹiːðɪŋ/
• Rhymes: -iːðɪŋ

breathing

1. present participle of breathe

breathing (countable and uncountable, plural breathings)

1. The act of respiration; a single instance of this.
   • 1848, The New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal

     […] their breathings, cryings, and excretings would have been damaged […]

2. A diacritical mark indicating aspiration or lack thereof.
3. (archaic) Time to recover one's breath; hence, a delay, a spell of time.
   • 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     DON PEDRO. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?
     CLAUDIO. To-morrow, my lord. Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.
     LEONATO. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just seven-night; and a time too brief too, to have all things answer my mind.
     DON PEDRO. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us.

4. Any gentle influence or operation; inspiration.

   the breathings of the Holy Spirit

5. Aspiration; secret prayer.
   • May 24, 1683, John Tillotson, sermon preached at the funeral of Reverend Benjamin Whichcot

     earnest desires and breathings after that blessed state

• rebathing