1. Home
2. Idioms
3. breather

breather

---

---

fire-breather

One who is intensely and aggressively passionate and fiercely determined. Likened to a dragon or other beast able to shoot streams of fire from its mouth. The company's new boss proved to be a real fire-breather, and in just a few months she turned a once-middling local business into a national powerhouse.

take a breather

To take a short pause or hiatus (from something). You can go ahead on the hike if you want, I'm going to stop here and take a breather. The senator is taking a breather from his campaign to spend some time with his family.

See also: breather, take

breather

n. a rest period; a lull. (A chance to catch one’s breath.) As soon as we’ve had a breather, it’s back to work.

mouth-breather

n. a stupid-acting person. I always end up with a mouth-breather on a blind date.