anhelations

Noun

anhelation (countable and uncountable, plural anhelations)

1. (archaic, uncountable) Breathing difficulty, shortness of breath.
   • In a Diſpnœa, the breath is thick, vvithout noiſe or anhelation, and vvith leſs trouble.1655, Lazarus Riverius [i.e., Lazare Rivière], “Of Asthma, or Difficulty of Breathing”, in Nicholas Culpeper, Abdiah Cole, and William Rowland, transl., The Practice of Physick, […], London: […]...

   Synonyms:

   breathlessness, dyspnea, dyspnoea

2. (figuratively, obsolete, uncountable) Mental or spiritual agitation.
3. (figuratively, obsolete, uncountable) Followed by after or for: eager desire; (countable) an instance of this.
   • [T]ruſt not upon that rule, that men buy cheapeſt at the end of the market, that heaven may be had for a breath at laſt, vvhen they that hear it cannot tel vvhether it be a ſigh or a gaſp, a religious breathing and anhelation after the next life, or natural breathing out, and exhalation of this...1619 April 27 (date delivered; Gregorian calendar), John Donne, “A Sermon of Valediction at My Going into Germany, at L[i]ncolns-Inne, April. 18. 1619. Sermon XIX.”, in XXVI. Sermons (Never before...