holding breath
Awaiting air intake
Holding breath is the act of deliberately stopping breathing, typically in anticipation or suspense.
The phrase appears most often in its negative form: Don't hold your breath means don't expect something to happen soon, if ever.
To say I'm holding my breath suggests anxious waiting for an outcome.
The literal sense—swimmers holding breath underwater, children holding breath until they turn blue—is less common in everyday speech than the figurative.
- inhaleDraw air in
- exhaleExpel breath outward
- gaspSudden sharp breath
- suspenseAnxious uncertainty about outcomes
- edge of seatState of rapt tension
underwater · diving · free diving · lungs · suffocate · anticipation · oxygen · air · coming up for air · waiting · tense · submerge · apnea · lung capacity · chest · stillness · surface · pressure
- smell reactionssniffing, disgust, nose wrinkle, nose wrinkling, aversion
- Workout Mistakesbad form, overtraining, arched back, overextension, hyperextension
- breathinginhalation, exhalation, inhale, exhale, respiration
- anticipationanticipating, expectation, expectancy, expecting, awaiting
- fidgetingfidgeting, fidget, tapping, fiddle, finger tapping
- party trickscard tricks, card trick, magic trick, magic tricks, spoon bending
holding breathexhaling
Breathing air outward
breathing out · breathing · respiring · inhaling · breathing in
holding breathrelaxing
Becoming less tense
letting go · at ease · resting easy · unclenching · unwinding
hold, holds, holder, holders, holding, holdings, uphold, upheld, withhold