gasp

Verb

gasp (third-person singular simple present gasps, present participle gasping, simple past and past participle gasped)

1. (intransitive) To draw in the breath suddenly, as if from a shock.
   • The audience gasped as the magician disappeared.
2. (intransitive) To breathe quickly or in a labored manner, as after exertion; to respire with heaving of the breast; to pant.
   • We were all gasping when we reached the summit.
   • She gasps and struggles hard for life.c. 1761-1764, Robert Lloyd, An Epistle to C. Churchill, Author of the Rosicad
3. (transitive) To speak in a breathless manner.
   • The old man gasped his last few words.
4. To pant with eagerness or excitement; to show vehement desire.
   • I'm gasping for a cup of tea.
   • Quenching the gasping furrows' thirst with rain.1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], “Aprill. Aegloga Quarta.”, in The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Iohn Wolfe for Iohn Harrison the yonger, […], →OCLC

Noun

gasp (plural gasps)

1. A short, sudden intake of breath.
   • The audience gave a gasp of astonishment
2. (UK, slang) A draw or drag on a cigarette (or gasper).
   • I'm popping out for a gasp.

Interjection

1. (humorous) The sound of a gasp.
   • Gasp! What will happen next?

Adjective capitalized: GASP

GASP (comparative more GASP, superlative most GASP)

1. (abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of globalist, academic, secular, and progressive.
   • Those who dwell outside of Western Establishment bastions are not idiots just because they do not mouth the pieties of GASP. Some of them can write very well. There are other traditions, you know. They could write for Wikipedia, if you let them. But such true openness and genuine tolerance is...2025 September 30, Larry Sanger, “2. Enable competing articles.”, in larrysanger.org