catch one's breath

catch one's breath verb: to take a break, or rest while doing a strenuous activity, so that one's breathing becomes easier.

Verb

catch one's breath (third-person singular simple present catches one's breath, present participle catching one's breath, simple past and past participle caught one's breath)

to take a break, or rest while doing a strenuous activity, so that one's breathing becomes easier
- They stood for a moment at the end of the set to catch their breath before resuming play.
to take in a breath sharply and hold it, usually in reaction to a sudden shock, or surprise
- John caught his breath when he saw the bottle rolling unstoppably towards the opposite edge of the table.

to take a break, or rest while doing a strenuous activity: suminghap, maghabol ng hininga

to take a break, or rest while doing a strenuous activity: ambil napas, mengambil napas

to take a break, or rest while doing a strenuous activity: استراحت esterâhat, دمگیری dam-giri

third-person singular present	catches one's breath
present participle	catching one's breath
past participle	caught one's breath
past	caught one's breath

What does catch one's breath mean?: Catch one's breath means to take a break, or rest while doing a strenuous activity, so that one's breathing becomes easier.
What is catch one's breath in Tagalog?: Catch one's breath in Tagalog is suminghap, maghabol ng hininga. See Catch one's breath meaning in Tagalog.
What part of speech is catch one's breath?: Catch one's breath is a verb.
What is the past tense of catch one's breath?: The past tense of catch one's breath is caught one's breath.

Adapted from Wiktionary: catch one's breath (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “catch one's breath.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/catch_one%27s_breath. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.