breath of life

noun

Divine animation; that which brings life into living things.

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Meanings

noun
  1. Divine animation; that which brings life into living things.

    He it was who had bespangled the soils with russet leaves and reeds and who had breathed the breath of life into beings.

    1961, Norma Lorre Goodrich, “Beowulf”, in The Medieval Myths, New York: The New American Library, page 20
    2 more examples

    And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, & breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a liuing soule.

    1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 2:7

    "Whether a child is born in the urban sprawl of Detroit or the windswept plains of Nebraska, they look up at the same night sky, they fill their heart with the same dreams, and they are infused with the breath of life by the same almighty Creator."

    2017 January 20, Elizabeth Williamson, quoting Donald J. Trump, “What We’re Seeing at Trump’s Presidential Inauguration”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 21 Jan 2017, Opinion
  2. A fundamental necessity.
Cite this entry
APA

breath of life. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breath%20of%20life

MLA

“breath of life.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breath%20of%20life. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “breath of life,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/breath%20of%20life.

Source: breath of life on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.