Hyperventilate

Quick meaning: Hyperventilate is a verb meaning (intransitive) To breathe quickly and deeply, especially at an abnormally rapid rate.

Meaning

(intransitive) To breathe quickly and deeply, especially at an abnormally rapid rate.

Example Sentences

When I tried it, I hyperventilated.

Sometimes on the highway I had to pull over to hyperventilate and sob.

Even some middle-of-the-road economic commentators have been hyperventilating, saying that she’s essentially calling for price controls, which is odd, because she didn’t say anything like that.

Sometimes her prose hyperventilates ("Once, years ago, his and N.'s love for each other had glowed like phosphorescent fire on the surfaces of their bodies"), and she has a weakness for epiphanies ("There was a man, no longer young, though not yet old, who, traveling alone in northern Europe, began to feel that his soul was being drained slowly, almost secretly from him, drop by drop").

Word Forms

• hyperventilates
• hyperventilating
• hyperventilated

Synonyms for hyperventilate

Depending on context, synonyms include overbreathe.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include overbreathe, gasp, inhale, pant, huff, throttle.

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