suspire

See also: suspiré

English

Etymology

Late Middle English, from Latin suspīrāre, present active infinitive of suspīrō. Cognate with Old French sospirer (modern soupirer) and Spanish suspirar.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /səˈspaɪə(ɹ)/
• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

Verb

suspire (third-person singular simple present suspires, present participle suspiring, simple past and past participle suspired)

1. (literary) To breathe.
   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Seventh Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC:

     Fireflies that suspire / In short, soft lapses of transported flame.

2. (literary) To exhale.
   • c. 1596 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Iohn”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:

     To him that yesterday did suspire.

3. (literary) To sigh.
   • 1859, Edward Fitzgerald, The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám: The Astronomer-Poet of Persia, page 2:

     Now the New Year reviving old Desires,
     The thoughtful Soul to Solitude retires,
     Where the White Hand of Moses on the Bough
     Puts out, and Jesus from the Ground suspires.

Synonyms

• (to breathe): see Thesaurus:breathe

Related terms

• suspiral
• suspiration
• suspirious

Noun

suspire (plural suspires)

1. (obsolete) A long, deep breath; a sigh.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “suspire”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• pussier, rises up, uprises

Galician

Verb

suspire

1. inflection of suspirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Verb

suspire

1. inflection of suspirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Verb

suspire

1. inflection of suspirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative