Breathful
adj, noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 That which is smelled or sensed in one breath.
"Once you've swirled, close your eyes and take a good breathful of the wine."
- 2 A quantity that is inhaled in one breath.
"Approximately I/5 of the oxygen in each breathful of air is absorbed by the body."
- 3 The amount spoken on one breath.
"Estelle lay in bed, groggily complaining against the gas light, and Miriam teased her, and Estelle told her to quit or get the devil out of here, but Miriam wouldn't quit, and Estelle thrashed around and pushed her and soon they had a little fight and then they both lay and told about their men, Estelle a breathful about her Dick, Miriam the next breathful about her Sammy."
- 4 A quantity that is exhaled in one breath.
"A fifteen-month gap separates the recording of the "The First Part" from "The Third Part," but the music could just as easily be two bubbles blown from the same fish on the same breathful of water."
- 1 That breathes; alive.
"They for nought would from their work refrain, Nor let his speeches come unto their ear; And eke the breathful bellows blew amain Like to the northern wind, that none could hear:"
- 2 Full of odour; fragrant. obsolete
"Fresh Costmarie, and breathfull Camomill."
- 3 Full of breath, produced by the breath; breathy.
"He spoke a queer, jerky kind of American that I can only describe as breathful."
- 4 Focused on control of one's breathing.
"The breathful twist on timing also adds a touch of novelty and a bit of distraction when facing more difficult topics."
- 5 Characteristic of a breath; breath-like.
"The poem celebrates itself, wedding the body's cry with the mind's linguistic design; it is a metaphor for the literal human voice transformed into poetic speech. One might imagine that in the beginning was the letter O and its breathful sound."
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- 6 Not breathless; breathing easily.
"The end result of the Princeton experiment was that a startled but breathful Rutgers team downed a hell-raising breathless Princeton squad, 6-4."
- 7 Relaxed and quiet.
"After the noon-blaze, in the breathful eve, The many 'folk of holiday ' come out ; And lovers saunter on the pier, and leave The gossip of their friends, to walk about"
Example
More examples"They for nought would from their work refrain, Nor let his speeches come unto their ear; And eke the breathful bellows blew amain Like to the northern wind, that none could hear:"
Etymology
From breath + -ful.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.