mouth-breathe

verb

To breathe through the mouth.

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Meanings

verbmouth-breathe (third-person singular simple present mouth-breathes, present participle mouth-breathing, simple past and past participle mouth-breathed)

present singular third person mouth-breathes · participle present mouth-breathing · participle past mouth-breathed · past mouth-breathed · alternative mouthbreathe

  1. To breathe through the mouth.

    His advisors mouth-breathed at the side of His Obesity, who trembled with delight.

    2017, Ron Smith, The Humility of the Brutes, Louisiana State University Press, →ISBN, page 33
    2 more examples

    This problem may be increased if the individual mouth-breathes, which causes the secretions to dry and become thicker.

    1993, Hilary Johnson, Amanda Scott, A Practical Approach to Saliva Control, Communication Skill Builders, →ISBN, page 11

    During the 10 minutes the test subjects were mouth-breathing to encourage deeper penetration of nitrous acid in the respiratory system so as to induce a mild cooling which would increase their responsiveness to irritants.

    1993 July, Energy Research Abstracts, volume 18, number 7, page 479
Cite this entry
APA

mouth-breathe. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mouth-breathe

MLA

“mouth-breathe.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mouth-breathe. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “mouth-breathe,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/mouth-breathe.

Source: mouth-breathe on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.