Word.ws English Dictionary

under one's breath

under one's breath prepositional phrase: softly, so as not to be heard.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Softly, so as not to be heard.
    • “Here she go lookin’ like a straight up dirty coochie having hoochie gettin’ all the play,” Quanisha mumbled under her breath jealously.2006, J. Gail, Karma’s a Bitch, page 136
    • Then of a sudden she was kissing and fondling instead of fighting me off, laughing under her breath and using a few horny words I didn't know at that time2015, Edgar Pangborn, Edgar Pangborn SF Gateway Omnibus

Synonyms of under one's breath

Questions about under one's breath

What does under one's breath mean?
Under one's breath means softly, so as not to be heard.
What part of speech is under one's breath?
Under one's breath is a prepositional phrase.

Words near under one's breath in the dictionary

  1. under no circumstances
  2. under oath
  3. under one roof
  4. under one's arm
  5. under one's belt
  6. under one's breath
  7. under one's feet
  8. under one's hand
  9. under one's hat
  10. under one's own steam
  11. under one's thumb

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-under one's breath.ogg.

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