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exhale

verbnounattested in dialogue

  • //ˌɛksˈheɪ̯l//
  • /[ˌɛksˈheɪ̯l]/
  • //ɪɡˈzeɪ̯l//
  • /[ɪɡˈzeɪ̯l]/

To expel air from the lungs through the nose or mouth by action of the diaphragm, to breathe out.

verb

  1. 1

    To expel air from the lungs through the nose or mouth by action of the diaphragm, to breathe out.

  2. 2

    To expel (something, such as tobacco smoke) from the lungs by action of the diaphragm.

  3. 3

    To pass off in the form of vapour; to emerge.

    Above was a tiled roof – though from that imperfect tiling exhaled stench and pestilence.

    Passengers on the earliest railway services would not even have enjoyed the luxury of a platform, instead having to step up onto the waiting open top wagons, where they would experience a journey that left many choking on the plumes of smoke exhaled by the leading locomotive.

  4. 4

    To emit (a vapour, an odour, etc.).

    The earth exhales vapor; marshes exhale noxious effluvia.

    Leſs fragrant Scents th' unfolding Roſe exhales, / Or Spices breathing in Arabian Gales.

  5. 5

    To draw out; to cause to be emitted in vapour.

    The sun exhales the moisture of the earth.

Etymology

From Middle French exhaler, from Latin exhalare, from ex (“out”) + halare (“to breathe”).

noun

  1. 1

    An exhalation.

    Now have client take slower, normal breaths through the nose and notice how the abdomen moves slightly outward with each inhale and then deflates with each exhale.

Forms

plural
exhales
past tense
exhaled
past participle
exhaled
present participle
exhaling
third person singular
exhales
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).