How to use breathe in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Breathe means to draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases. Example: “Fish have gills so they can breathe underwater.”

Examples of breathe by meaning

verbTo take in needed gases and expel waste gases in a similar way.

Fish have gills so they can breathe underwater.

verbTo inhale (a gas) to sustain life.

While life as we know it depends on oxygen, scientists have speculated that alien life forms might breathe chlorine or methane.

verbTo live.

I will not allow it, as long as I still breathe.

verbTo draw something into the lungs.

Try not to breathe too much smoke.

verbTo expel air from the lungs, exhale.

If you breathe on a mirror, it will fog up.

verbTo exhale or expel (something) in the manner of breath.

The flowers breathed a heady perfume.
Mountain Drakes breathe fire, Ice Drakes breathe ice, Swamp Drakes breathe acid, and Forest Drakes breathe lightning.2012, Timothy Groves, The Book Of Creatures, →ISBN, page 85

verbTo give an impression of, to exude.

The decor positively breathes classical elegance.

verbTo whisper quietly.

He breathed the words into her ear, but she understood them all.

More sentences with breathe

Humans, like other animals, need air to breathe and food to eat.From the entry animal
It was so cold a day that I could hardly breathe outside.From the entry so
Breathe out slowly through your mouth for a count of five.From the entry count
You can breathe easy knowing that your savings account is insured against loss.From the entry breathe easy
I had a nightmare that I tried to run but could neither move nor breathe.From the entry nightmare
Reflexively he opened his mouth to breathe, forgetting he was underwater.From the entry reflexively
Some salamanders are both gillless and lungless as adults, relying solely on cutaneous respiration to breathe.From the entry gillless
It being the case that all mammals breathe air, it follows that whales must breathe air.From the entry be the case
I find I can breathe more easily when I'm out in the open.From the entry in the open
I warn you not to breathe a word of this to anyone, or else!From the entry breathe a word
To run a successful business, you have to live and breathe your product.From the entry live and breathe
The movie cuts away too much and too quickly without letting scenes breathe.From the entry cut away
Wipe off the machines after you use them. No one wants to breathe in your swass!From the entry swass
They'll tax us for the air we breathe next.From the entry they
The glass clouds when you breathe on it.From the entry cloud
The air you breathe is mostly nitrogen.From the entry nitrogen
About 21% of the air you breathe is oxygen.From the entry oxygen
She used a snorkel to breathe while swimming underwater.From the entry snorkel
I can't breathe, I'm creasing so hard.From the entry crease
The air was so foul nobody could breathe.From the entry foul
Plants provide (us) with the oxygen we breathe.From the entry provide
The heat was stifling; it seemed hard to breathe and the exertion of rolling over on the bed seemed too much.From the entry stifling
When an allergic reaction caused Jack's throat to swell, the paramedics inserted a tracheal tube so that he could breathe.From the entry tracheal
Lungless salamanders breathe through their skin.From the entry lungless
Fall into cold water, and you will instantly gasp at the cold and breathe in water.2025 October 21, Rose George, “‘I knew in my head we were dying’: the last voyage of the Scandies Rose”, in The Guardian. From the entry cold shock response
All it needs now is the operculum, a little lid that will help your kid breathe.2023, translated in 2025, Berta Páramo and translated by Marc Correa Haro, Lice: How to Survive on Humans, page 110. From the entry operculum
Chappelle, Spotify can probably breathe easy on this front for now.2022 January 31, Kevin Roose, “Spotify’s Joe Rogan Problem Isn’t Going Away”, in The New York Times, →ISSN. From the entry dustup
I breathe some more and finally am ready for my cup of cold-brew coffee!2022, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza, Body Becoming: A Path to Our Liberation, Broadleaf Books, →ISBN. From the entry cold-brew coffee
The Hollywood elitists had nominated two fraudumentaries on fake hospitals, yearning to breathe free.2020 February 22, Miri Wood, “Health Minister Discusses Status of Syria's Actual Hospitals”, in Syria News. From the entry fraudumentary
Take out their supply line to give our troops room to breathe.2017, BioWare, Mass Effect: Andromeda (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Disrupt Enemy Supplies. From the entry pressure
Some people live and breathe by Starbies and others just can’t stand the price.2017 May 15, Zach Bethel, “How to calm your coffee cravings in Tallahassee”, in The Almanac, page 35. From the entry Starbies

Meaning of breathe

verb To draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases.
verb To take in needed gases and expel waste gases in a similar way.
verb To inhale (a gas) to sustain life.

Full definition of breathe

Questions about breathe in a sentence

How do you use breathe in a sentence?: Breathe is used as a verb. For example: “Fish have gills so they can breathe underwater.”
What is a short sentence with breathe?: “Lungless salamanders breathe through their skin.”
What does breathe mean?: Breathe means to draw air into (inhale), and expel air from (exhale), the lungs in order to extract oxygen and excrete waste gases.

Adapted from Wiktionary: breathe (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use breathe in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/breathe. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.