To open the mouth wide in catching the breath, or in laborious respiration; to labor for breath; to respire convulsively; to pant violently. She gasps and struggles hard for life. Lloyd.
To pant with eagerness; to show vehement desire. Quenching the gasping furrows' thirst with rain. Spenser.
To emit or utter with gasps; -- with forth, out, away, etc. And with short sobs he gasps away his breath. Dryden.
The act of opening the mouth convulsively to catch the breath; a labored respiration; a painful catching of the breath. At the last gasp, at the point of death. Addison.
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