hyperventilate

present singular third person hyperventilates · participle present hyperventilating · participle past hyperventilated · past hyperventilated

1. intransitiveTo breathe quickly and deeply, especially at an abnormally rapid rate.

   When I tried it, I hyperventilated.

   1981 April 15, Ira Berkow, “DRAMA IN 'STENGELESE: YOU CAN LOOK IT UP”, in The New York Times

   3 more examples

   Sometimes her prose hyperventilates ("Once, years ago, his and N.'s love for each other had glowed like phosphorescent fire on the surfaces of their bodies"), and she has a weakness for epiphanies ("There was a man, no longer young, though not yet old, who, traveling alone in northern Europe, began to feel that his soul was being drained slowly, almost secretly from him, drop by drop").

   1988 February 10, James Atlas, “DABBLING IN LOVE - NOT THE NICE KIND”, in The New York Times

   Sometimes on the highway I had to pull over to hyperventilate and sob.

   2020 June 15, Eva Holland, “In a Crisis, We Can Learn From Trauma Therapy”, in The New York Times

   Even some middle-of-the-road economic commentators have been hyperventilating, saying that she’s essentially calling for price controls, which is odd, because she didn’t say anything like that.

   2024 August 19, Paul Krugman, “Kamalanomics, Revealed: A Solid Center-Left Agenda”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: overbreathe