Word.ws English Dictionary

don't hold your breath

don't hold your breath phrase: don't wait. Said cynically to suggest that what has just been mentioned is unlikely to happen soon or at all.

Phrase

don't hold your breath

  1. (idiomatic, imperative) Don't wait. Said cynically to suggest that what has just been mentioned is unlikely to happen soon or at all.
    • - The government says it's going to introduce free meals for all schoolchildren.
      - Huh, don't hold your breath.
    • Don't hold your breath and don't jump to conclusions, but there is likely to be an announcement about the future of the railways in the next few weeks - [...].2021 February 24, Christian Wolmar, “Franchising still exists - under tight Departmental control”, in RAIL, number 925, page 48

Origin of don't hold your breath

Suggesting that if one were to hold one's breath while waiting for the expected event, one would die before it happened

Questions about don't hold your breath

What does don't hold your breath mean?
Don't hold your breath means don't wait. Said cynically to suggest that what has just been mentioned is unlikely to happen soon or at all.
What part of speech is don't hold your breath?
Don't hold your breath is a phrase.

Words near don't hold your breath in the dictionary

  1. don't give up the day job
  2. don't give up your day job
  3. don't go there
  4. don't got
  5. don't hate the player, hate the game
  6. don't hold your breath
  7. don't I know it
  8. don't judge a book by its cover
  9. don't keep a dog and bark yourself
  10. don't knock it till you've tried it
  11. don't knock it until you've tried it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: don't hold your 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-don't hold your breath.ogg.

Cite this entry: “don't hold your breath.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/don%27t_hold_your_breath. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.