out of breath

1. Breathing with difficulty, panting, gasping. For example, After five flights of stairs I'm out of breath. This slightly hyperbolic term (since literally running out of breath means one is dead) dates from the late 1500s. Also see catch one's breath.

Example Sentences

“I had a hard time seeing. My eyes stung and I was out of breath. A young Latino man grabbed me and pulled me out of there. I don’t know what would have happened if he hadn’t helped,” he told me.

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"If you said to me 'walk up and down the stairs' I'd be out of breath, but on a Wednesday night I can do about 8,000 steps in two hours and think absolutely nothing of it."

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We listened to jazz, drank and danced until we were out of breath at B.B.

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He emphasizes effort over perfection: Walk fast enough to get out of breath, but not so fast that you can’t finish the three-minute interval.

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"It could be that they are noticing a change with their bodies – they struggle to play sport without being out of breath for instance, or they're coughing up blood, or they just know they're addicted and they want to stop or cut down."

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