Meaning of with bated breath | Babel Free

Definitions

1. With reduced breath.
2. Eagerly; with great anticipation.
   idiomatic

Equivalents

Examples

“Shall I bend⟳ low, and in a bond-mans key / With bated breath, and whiſpring humbleneſſe, / Say⟳ this:”

“[…] with parted lips and bated breath the audience hung upon his words, taking no note⟳ of time, rapt in the ghastly fascinations of the tale.”

“Speak⟳ gently, Ο my son, speak⟳ gently now / With 'bated breath^([sic]), speak⟳ low.”

“The Professor, the master, the supreme chief, he who had to be addressed with bated breath sat with half-opened mouth and staring eyes, leaning forward⟳ in his chair, while in front of him the slight young woman shaking her mop of brown hair and wagging an admonitory forefinger, spoke to him as a father speaks to a refractory child.”

“We are waiting with bated breath for the release⟳ of the new version.”

“Thanks to the previous experience⟳ of the chief performers, to careful preparation and rehearsal, and to perfect weather conditions, they watched in breath-bated silence the spectacle of the huge bulk moving without a hitch into position over the temporary pier caps on which it settled as water ballast was admitted to the pontoons.”

CEFR level