Word.ws English Dictionary

save one's breath

save one's breath verb: to refrain from speech; to be quiet, especially where it would have no useful effect to speak.

Verb

save one's breath (third-person singular simple present saves one's breath, present participle saving one's breath, simple past and past participle saved one's breath)

  1. (idiomatic, imperative) To refrain from speech; to be quiet, especially where it would have no useful effect to speak.
    • If you're going to start in on me about coming back into the company — save your breath. There's no room here for me and you know it.1979, Garson Kanin, Moviola

Forms of save one's breath

third-person singular presentsaves one's breath
present participlesaving one's breath
past participlesaved one's breath
pastsaved one's breath

Words formed from save one's breath

Questions about save one's breath

What does save one's breath mean?
Save one's breath means to refrain from speech; to be quiet, especially where it would have no useful effect to speak.
What part of speech is save one's breath?
Save one's breath is a verb.
What is the past tense of save one's breath?
The past tense of save one's breath is saved one's breath.

Words near save one's breath in the dictionary

  1. save files
  2. save for
  3. save for a rainy day
  4. save harmless
  5. save it
  6. save one's breath
  7. save one's breath to cool one's porridge
  8. save one's neck
  9. save one's skin
  10. save over
  11. save point

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: save 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-save one's breath.ogg.

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