The Collaborative International Dictionary
Breathing \Breath"ing\, n.
-
Respiration; the act of inhaling and exhaling air.
Subject to a difficulty of breathing.
--Melmoth. Air in gentle motion.
Any gentle influence or operation; inspiration; as, the breathings of the Spirit.
Aspiration; secret prayer. ``Earnest desires and breathings after that blessed state.''
--Tillotson.-
Exercising; promotion of respiration.
Here is a lady that wants breathing too; And I have heard, you knights of Tyre Are excellent in making ladies trip.
--Shak. -
Utterance; communication or publicity by words.
I am sorry to give breathing to my purpose.
--Shak. Breathing place; vent.
--Dryden.-
Stop; pause; delay.
You shake the head at so long a breathing.
--Shak. Also, in a wider sense, the sound caused by the friction of the outgoing breath in the throat, mouth, etc., when the glottis is wide open; aspiration; the sound expressed by the letter h.
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(Gr. Gram.) A mark to indicate aspiration or its absence. See Rough breathing, Smooth breathing, below. Breathing place.
A pause. ``That c[ae]sura, or breathing place, in the midst of the verse.''
--Sir P. Sidney.-
A vent.
Breathing time, pause; relaxation.
--Bp. Hall.Breathing while, time sufficient for drawing breath; a short time.
--Shak.Rough breathing ( spiritus asper) ([spasp]). See 2d Asper, n.
Smooth breathing ( spiritus lenis), a mark (') indicating the absence of the sound of h, as in 'ie`nai (ienai).
Wiktionary
n. 1 The sound equivalent to an initial "h" before a vowel or an "r" in Ancient Greek. 2 The mark used to indicate the occurrence of the sound.
Wikipedia
In the polytonic orthography of Ancient Greek, the rough breathing ( or daseîa; dasía; Latin spīritus asper), is a diacritical mark used to indicate the presence of an sound before a vowel, diphthong, or rho. It remained in the polytonic orthography even after the Hellenistic period, when the sound disappeared from the Greek language. In the monotonic orthography of Modern Greek phonology, in use since 1982, it is not used at all.
The absence of an sound is marked by the smooth breathing.
Usage examples of "rough breathing".
Bubbles thought she could hear rough breathing, something that might be boots scraping on stone.
Larssen waited for what seemed forever, heart hammering, listening in the pitch blackness to the rough breathing that echoed his own.
In the silence, the sound of our rough breathing was loud as thunder.
Hearing Aron's rough breathing, he could tell that the old man was even afraid.
The war room had been excavated through much of the mountain, and even the echoes of Teneniel's rough breathing came soft and diffused, lost in the distance.
She heard rough breathing, puffing from the climb, smelled wool robes, dried sweat, camel-dung smoke, and mint tea, heard gravel crunch under a sandal, then a hem swish over stone.
She heard Gilles's snores and Gustave's rough breathing, and Marie also slept on undisturbed.
He was too aware of Cassidy's rough breathing, the heightened intensity other scent, the lush fragrance other womanhood.
The only sound in the room now was Sirs increasingly rough breathing, becoming ever more harsh, ever less regular.
Had I not known how moderate most of his habits were, I would have thought from his deep, rough breathing and the way he had disordered the blankets that he had drunk himself stuporous, but Sulis seldom took even a single cup of wine.
Sturgis arched his back, bit his lip, and Beaudry heard fast, rough breathing.