Word.ws English Dictionary

taking someone's breath away

taking someone's breath away is the present participle and gerund of take someone's breath away.

Meaning of take someone's breath away

Verb

take someone's breath away (third-person singular simple present takes someone's breath away, present participle taking someone's breath away, simple past took someone's breath away, past participle taken someone's breath away)

  1. (idiomatic) To make a person feel emotionally moved in a pleasant way.
    • A faded photograph / I mailed to you / With feelings I don't want to face / And a love song of surrender in blue / I remember when you took my breath away.1978, Bionic Boogie, “Hot Butterfly”, in Gregg Diamond Bionic Boogie – Hot Butterfly (performed by Luther Vandross)

Questions about taking someone's breath away

What is taking someone's breath away the present participle and gerund of?
Taking someone's breath away is the present participle and gerund of take someone's breath away.

Words near taking someone's breath away in the dictionary

  1. taking someone down the garden path
  2. taking someone for all they've got
  3. taking someone to the grave
  4. taking someone up short
  5. taking someone's arm
  6. taking someone's breath away
  7. taking someone's fancy
  8. taking someone's head off
  9. taking someone's life
  10. taking someone's name in vain
  11. taking someone's part

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: taking someone's breath away (page history and authors); take someone's breath away (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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