Word Explorer

Gasping

To draw in the breath suddenly, as if from a shock.

📖 Definitions of "Gasping"

verb

1
To draw in the breath suddenly, as if from a shock.
"The audience gasped as the magician disappeared."
2
To breathe laboriously or convulsively.
"We were all gasping when we reached the summit."
3
To speak in a breathless manner.
"The old man gasped his last few words."
4
To pant with eagerness; to show vehement desire.
"I'm gasping for a cup of tea."

noun

adjective

7 synonyms found via WordNet and Google Books.

Word	Definition
pursy	Out of breath; short of breath, especially due to fatness.
short-winded	Concise and to the point.
breathless	Having difficulty breathing; gasping.
blown	Distended, swollen, or inflated.
winded	Out of breath.
out of breath	—
pantingnoun	The act of one who pants.

Found via reverse dictionary — words that share a conceptual meaning.

Word	Definition
winded	Out of breath.
breathless	Having difficulty breathing; gasping.
pursy	Out of breath; short of breath, especially due to fatness.
short-winded	Concise and to the point.
pantingnoun	The act of one who pants.
blown	Distended, swollen, or inflated.
out of breathverb	—
gulpingnoun	The action of one who gulps.
heavingnoun	An occasion on which something heaves or is heaved.
huffingnoun	(colloquial) The act of inhaling psychoactive inhalants.
puffingverb	The act of one who puffs.
wheezingnoun	The quality or symptom of breathing with an audible wheeze
dyspneic	Afflicted with dyspnea; possessing unhealthy breathing.
strainingnoun	The act by which one strains. (muscles, etc)
sputteringnoun	A noise that sputters.
chokingnoun	The process in which a person's airway becomes blocked, resulting in asphyxia in cases that are not treated promptly.
suffocatingnoun	That tends to suffocate the target(s); so overwhelming and lethal or life-threatening as to suffocate; suffocative.
hyperventilatingverb	(intransitive) To breathe quickly and deeply, especially at an abnormally rapid rate.
labored	Alternative form of laboured. [Expressive of strenuous effort.]
wheezy	That wheezes.