inhale

From Latin inhalare (“to breathe on (breathe in)”), from in (“in, into, on”) + halare (“to breathe”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈheɪl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪl

inhale (third-person singular simple present inhales, present participle inhaling, simple past and past participle inhaled)

1. (intransitive) To draw air into the lungs, through the nose or mouth by action of the diaphragm.

   Synonyms: breathe in, inbreathe, inspire

   Antonyms: breathe out, outbreathe, exhale, expire

   • 1998, Katherine Greyle, Oracle: The Prophesy Fulfilled, Zephyr Cove, Nev.: LionHearted Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, pages 72 and 74:

     “Please. I’m starved.” Her gaze followed the man with the meatpies while she inhaled deeply, trying to hold onto the heavenly scent. […] “I find myself ravenous for meatpie.”

2. (transitive) To draw air or any form of gas (either in a pure form, or mixed with small particles in form of aerosols/smoke -sometimes stemming from a medicament) into the lungs, through the nose or mouth by action of the diaphragm.

   Synonyms: breathe in, inbreathe, inspire

   Antonyms: breathe out, outbreathe, exhale

   • 1878, Henry James, “Honoré de Balzac”, in French Poets and Novelists‎^[1], London: Macmillan, II, p. 122:

     […] this room, where misfortune seems to ooze, where speculation lurks in corners, and of which Madame Vauquer inhales the warm, fetid air without being nauseated.

   • 1909, E[rnest] W[illiam] Hornung, “An Inaugural Banquet”, in Mr. Justice Raffles, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, page 2:

     And he led the way from the station, stopping once to gloat over the sunset across Trafalgar Square, and again to inhale the tarry scent of the warm wood-paving, which was perfume to his nostrils as the din of its traffic was music to his ears, before we came to one of those political palaces which permit themselves to be included in the list of ordinary clubs.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To eat very quickly.
   • 2014, Dee Disheau, Love in the Sand and the Snow, page 26:

     She had also forgotten both diet and protocol as she joined Sven in guzzling large cokes, practically inhaling fries and gravy, and rounding off the meal with double malts.

• exhale

• inhaler
• halitosis

inhale (plural inhales)

1. An inhalation.
   • 2009, David A. Clark, Aaron T. Beck, Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: Science and Practice:

     Now have client take slower, normal breaths through the nose and notice how the abdomen moves slightly outward with each inhale and then deflates with each exhale.

• snap inhale

• “inhale”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “inhale”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “inhale”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• haline, healin'

inhale

1. (dated or formal) singular dependent-clause present subjunctive of inhalen

inhale

1. inflection of inhaler:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

inhale

1. inflection of inhalar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

inhale

1. inflection of inhalar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative