Meaning & use
gasping for breath
Last updated
“gasping for breath” is a form of “gasp for breath”.
Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
Breathing in sharply and with difficulty because you cannot get enough air, for example after running or from shock.
Grammar: Used with be or after a verb like left: he was gasping for breath.
Patterns
- be gasping for breath
- leave someone gasping for breath
After the sprint, the runners stood gasping for breath.
He came up from the deep water gasping for breath.
The climb left us gasping for breath near the top.
phrasefixed phrasemedical
Struggling to get air into the lungs because of illness, injury or something blocking breathing.
Grammar: Often shows an emergency: she was gasping for breath.
Patterns
- be gasping for breath
- found gasping for breath
The patient was gasping for breath when the ambulance arrived.
The dog was gasping for breath after it ate something it should not have.
He woke up gasping for breath in the middle of the night.
Word forms
| base form | gasp for breath |
|---|---|
| third person singular | gasps for breath |
| past tense | gasped for breath |
| -ing form | gasping for breath |
Common combinations
- left gasping for breath
- The steep hill left everyone gasping for breath.
- came up gasping for breath
- She surfaced gasping for breath after the long dive.
- stood gasping for breath
- He stood gasping for breath at the finish line.
- lay gasping for breath
- The fish lay gasping for breath on the deck.
- woke gasping for breath
- She woke gasping for breath from a nightmare.
Synonyms and how they differ
- panting
- Panting is fast, shallow breathing, often after exercise, and it is less desperate than gasping.
- wheezing
- Wheezing means breathing with a whistling sound, usually from a lung or throat problem.
- struggling to breathe
- Struggling to breathe is a plain description, while gasping for breath adds the sound of sharp, hurried breaths.
- out of breath
- Out of breath describes the state after effort, while gasping for breath describes the action.
Opposites
Word family
- gasp verb
- to take a sudden, sharp breath
- gasp noun
- a sudden sharp breath showing surprise or effort
- breath noun
- air that goes in and out of the lungs
- breathless adjective
- having difficulty breathing
Commonly confused: gasping for breath or breathe?
gasping for breath vs breathe
Breathe is the verb with a long vowel, while breath is the noun with a short vowel, so we say gasping for breath, not gasping for breathe.
Practice
After running up five flights of stairs, Tom was ___ for breath.
Choose one answer.
The phrase is gasping for breath. Gaping means opening wide, and gasping at would not combine with the noun phrase for breath.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “gasping for breath”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.