Word.ws English Dictionary

saving one's breath

saving one's breath is the present participle and gerund of save one's breath.

Meaning of save one's breath

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

Questions about saving one's breath

What is saving one's breath the present participle and gerund of?
Saving one's breath is the present participle and gerund of save one's breath.

Words near saving one's breath in the dictionary

  1. saving face
  2. saving for a rainy day
  3. saving grace
  4. saving graces
  5. saving it
  6. saving one's breath
  7. saving one's breath to cool one's porridge
  8. saving one's neck
  9. saving one's skin
  10. saving over
  11. saving someone's bacon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: saving one's breath (page history and authors); 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.

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