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To abate; to become less violent. Whence these raging fires Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. Milton.

or ], connecting notes that are to be sung to the same syllable, or made in one continued breath of a wind instrument, or with one stroke of a bow; a tie; a sign of legato.

ich affects the olfactory organs; odor; scent; fragrance; perfume; as, the smell of mint. Breathing the smell of field and grove. Milton. That which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air, is the violent. Bacon.

ffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.

Any one of numerous species of terrestrial air-breathing gastropods belonging to the genus Helix and many allied genera of the family Helicidæ. They are abundant in nearly all parts of the world except the arctic regions, and feed almost entirely on vegetation; a land sanil.

To draw in with the breath through the nose; as, to sniff the air of the country.

To breathe with a rough, hoarse, nasal voice in sleep.

To speak through the nose; to breathe through the nose when it is obstructed, so as to make a broken sound. One clad in purple Eats, and recites some lamentable rhyme . . . Snuffling at nose, and croaking in his throat. Dryden.

a kind of convulsive motion; to sigh with tears, and with a convulsive drawing in of the breath. Sobbing is the same thing [as sighing], stronger. Bacon. She sighed, she sobbed, and, furious with despair. She rent her garments, and she tore her hair. Dryden.

red, as an element of speech, with tone or proper vocal sound, as distinguished from mere breath sound; intonated; voiced; tonic; the opposite of nonvocal, or surd; -- sid of the vowels, semivowels, liquids, and nasals, and particularly of the consonants b, d, g hard, v, etc., as compared with their cognates p, t, k, f…

A sounding-board. To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. Milton.

To breathe out. [Obs.] amden.

without; to dispense with; to give up; to part with. Where angry Jove did never spare One breath of kind and temperate air. Roscommon. I could have better spared a better man. Shak. To spare one's self. (a) To act with reserve. [Obs.] Her thought that a lady should her spare. Chaucer.

Capable of being breathed; respirable. [Obs.] Nash.

The act of breathing. [Obs.] Barrow.

To breathe. [Obs.] Shenstone.

Air set in motion by breathing; breath; hence, sometimes, life itself. [Obs.] "All of spirit would deprive." Spenser. The mild air, with season moderate, Gently attempered, and disposed eo well, That still it breathed foorth sweet spirit. Spenser.

By means of the breath. [Obs.] Holder.

Having no breath; extinct; dead. "The spiritless body." Greenhill. -- Spir"it*less*ly, adv. -- Spir"it*less*ness, n.

A wet meter used to determine the breathing capacity of the lungs.