different between breath vs breathful

English

Alternative forms

• breth (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English breeth, breth, from Old English br?þ (“odor, scent, stink, exhalation, vapor”), from Proto-Germanic *br?þaz (“vapour, waft, exhalation, breath”) of unknown origin, perhaps from *g?wer- (“smell”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: brêth, IPA^(key): /b???/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

breath (countable and uncountable, plural breaths)

1. (uncountable) The act or process of breathing.

   • Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.

2. (countable) A single act of breathing in or out; a breathing of air.

   • Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. […] She put back a truant curl from her forehead where it had sought egress to the world, and looked him full in the face now, drawing a deep breath which caused the round of her bosom to lift the lace at her throat.

   • She knew from avalanche safety courses that outstretched hands might puncture the ice surface and alert rescuers. She knew that if victims ended up buried under the snow, cupped hands in front of the face could provide a small pocket of air for the mouth and nose. Without it, the first breaths could create a suffocating ice mask.

3. (uncountable) Air expelled from the lungs.

4. (countable) A rest or pause.

5. A small amount of something, such as wind, or common sense.

6. (obsolete) Fragrance; exhalation; odor; perfume.
   • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Gardens

     the breath of flowers

7. (obsolete) Gentle exercise, causing a quicker respiration.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

breath (third-person singular simple present breaths, present participle breathing, simple past and past participle breathed)

1. Misspelling of breathe.

   In the polar regions one finds dark cold waters with few places to breath.

See also

• exhalation
• inhalation
• respiration

Anagrams

• Bertha, bareth, bather, bertha

Irish

Noun 1

breath f (genitive singular breithe, nominative plural breitheanna)

1. Alternative form of breith (“birth; lay; bearing capacity; bringing, taking; seizing; catching, overtaking”)

Noun 2

breath f (genitive singular breithe, nominative plural breitheanna)

1. Alternative form of breith (“judgment, decision; injunction”)

Declension

Mutation

References

• "breath" in Foclóir Gaeilge–Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.

English

Etymology 1

breath +? -ful

Adjective

breathful (comparative more breathful, superlative most breathful)

1. That breathes.
2. Focused on control of one's breathing.
3. Full of breath; breathy.
4. Characteristic of a breath; breath-like.
5. Not breathless; breathing easily.
6. Relaxed and quiet.
7. (obsolete) Full of odour; fragrant.

Etymology 2

breath +? -ful

Noun

breathful (plural breathfuls or breathsful)

1. That which is smelled or sensed in one breath.
2. A quantity that is inhaled in one breath.
3. The amount spoken on one breath.
4. A quantity that is exhaled in one breath.