different between breather vs breath

English

Etymology

breathe +? -er

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /b?i?.ð?(?)/
• Rhymes: -i?ð?(r)

Noun

breather (plural breathers)

1. Something or someone that breathes.
2. A short break; a rest or respite.

3. (physics) A spatially localized, time-periodic excitation in a one-dimensional lattice.
4. (colloquial, dated) That which puts one out of breath, such as violent exercise.
5. (mechanics) An air inlet path to the crankcase

Synonyms

• (short break): hiatus, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause

Translations

Anagrams

• Eberhart

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.