Word.ws English Dictionary

took a breath

took a breath is the simple past of take a breath.

Meaning of take a breath

Verb

take a breath (third-person singular simple present takes a breath, present participle taking a breath, simple past took a breath, past participle taken a breath)

  1. (idiomatic) to inhale and subsequently exhale air
    • She paused and took a defiant breath. ‘If you don't believe me, I can't help it. But I'm not a liar.’1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC
  2. (idiomatic) to pause or rest after strenuous activity
  3. (idiomatic) to calm down

Questions about took a breath

What is took a breath the simple past of?
Took a breath is the simple past of take a breath.

Words near took a breath in the dictionary

  1. took a beat
  2. took a bite
  3. took a bite out of
  4. took a bow
  5. took a break
  6. took a breath
  7. took a breather
  8. took a bullet
  9. took a chair
  10. took a chance
  11. took a cotton to

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took a breath (page history and authors); take a 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: “took a breath.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/took_a_breath. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.