Past tense of breathe; to take air in and out of your lungs, or to pause briefly.
From Old English 'bræthan' (to exhale, smell). The modern spelling evolved in Middle English, and '-ed' is the standard past tense suffix for regular verbs, making 'breathed' the completed action.
The phrase 'he breathed a sigh of relief' shows how 'breathed' became poetic—it's not just about lungs anymore, but about emotional release, and this metaphor appears in almost every language because breathing and emotion are so deeply connected in human experience.
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