Word.ws English Dictionary

took someone's breath away

took someone's breath away is the simple past 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 took someone's breath away

What is took someone's breath away the simple past of?
Took someone's breath away is the simple past of take someone's breath away.

Words near took someone's breath away in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: took 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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