easily

To relax. To be free from worry. I can finally breathe easily now that I'm done my term paper—I had been working on that thing all day every day for weeks!

to assume a relaxed state after a stressful period. After this crisis is over, I'll be able to breathe easy again. He won't be able to breathe easy until he pays off his debts.

Cliché said of a task that is easier to talk about than to do. Yes, we must find a cure for cancer, but it's easier said than done. Finding a good job is easier said than done.

to relax Baseball fans can breathe easy now that the players' strike is over.

less difficult to talk about than to do Gun control may be a good idea, but actually getting the guns out of the peoples' hands is easier said than done.

something that you say when something seems like a good idea but it would be difficult to do The doctor says I should stop smoking but that's easier said than done.

Also, breathe easily or freely . Relax, feel relieved from anxiety, stress, or tension. For example, Now that exams are over with, I can breathe easy, or Whenever I'm back in the mountains, I can breathe freely again. This idiom originally (late 1500s) was put as breathe again, implying that one had stopped breathing (or held one's breath) while feeling anxious or nervous. Shakespeare had it in King John (4:2): "Now I breathe again aloft the flood." The variant dates from the first half of the 1800s.

Also, more easily said than done. Describing something more readily talked about than accomplished, as in Keeping the cats off the sofa is easier said than done. This expression also was put as sooner or better said than done . Today, the variant ( more easily) is still heard less often than the original. [c. 1450]