as in to gasp
to breathe hard, quickly, or with difficulty he was so nervous he began hyperventilating, and the extra oxygen made him dizzy

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of hyperventilate People ran pell-mell outside, sped away in cars with no clear destination, went to church, or just phoned the police or radio station to hyperventilate. Nicolas Rapold, airmail.news, 23 Nov. 2024 Joey and Jesse hyperventilate at the sight of her. Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 6 Nov. 2024 Wall Street has been hyperventilating over Nvidia and OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Howard Yu, Forbes, 15 Oct. 2024 At the same time, too, this is the same man who grew up on pastoral Oregon farmland, pushing himself on pre-dawn lifts, who nearly hyperventilated in the shower before one freshman-year playoff game at Crescent Valley. Luca Evans, The Denver Post, 16 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for hyperventilate
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hyperventilate
Verb
  • For anyone who’s ever been on a ventilator, death by suffocation is a paralyzing terror and Carson wholly sells this nightmare, painfully gasping for air and gurgling horribly as his nurse call button slips out of reach.
    Gayle Sequeira, Vulture, 16 May 2025
  • Art flop: When a bronze head by the master sculptor Alberto Giacometti failed to sell at Sotheby’s auction, the audience gasped.
    German Lopez, New York Times, 15 May 2025
Verb
  • Plus, the 100-percent, double-weave cotton feels light on the skin, giving even your best pair of comfy pajama pants a run for its money.
    Kristin Braswell, Travel + Leisure, 28 May 2025
  • Timothée Chalamet Timothée Chalamet wears the Visa CashApp Racing Bulls team kit shirt and Chrome Hearts pants with Timberland Boots.
    Kanika Talwar, Footwear News, 6 May 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Hyperventilate.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hyperventilate. Accessed 4 Jun. 2025.

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