breather

breathe +‎ -er (agent noun suffix) or +‎ -er (relational noun suffix)

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɹiː.ðə(ɹ)/

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• Rhymes: -iːðə(ɹ)

breather (plural breathers)

1. Something or someone that breathes.
2. (specifically) A heavy breather.
   • 1981 April 25, Martin H. Krieger, “Phone Calls”, in Gay Community News, page 12:

     Most of us make sense of the world through talk and sight, and breathers represent that most anxiety provoking experience, nothingness with a hint of possibility.

3. A short break; a rest or respite.

   After a short breather she was ready to continue up the hill.

4. (physics) A spatially localized, time-periodic excitation in a one-dimensional lattice.
5. (colloquial, dated) That which puts one out of breath, such as violent exercise.
6. (mechanics) An air inlet path to the crankcase

• (short break): hiatus, moratorium, recess; see also Thesaurus:pause

• Eberhart