Other forms: inhaled, inhaling, inhales
To inhale is to draw air into your lungs. The deep breath before you blow out the candles, the first cold lungful when you step outside in January, the pull on an asthma inhaler.
Its partner is exhale, and the pair are the tidy, technical way to say breathe in and breathe out — a doctor says 'inhale slowly', a friend says 'take a deep breath'. You inhale smoke, steam, dust and fumes as well as air, which is why the word turns up on warning labels: do not inhale the vapour. The noun is inhalation, and an inhaler is the small device an asthmatic carries in a pocket. There is a joking use for eating fast: he inhaled two slices before the others had sat down. It is not the word for smelling something on purpose — you sniff the milk, you do not inhale it.
1verbinhaleTo draw air, smoke or vapour into the lungs.
“She inhaled deeply and held it while the nurse counted to five.”
synonyms: breathe in
2verbeatTo eat or drink something very fast (informal).
“The kids were so hungry that they inhaled their pizza in minutes.”
Also accepted in games: breathe in
Inhale was put together in Latin from in, meaning into, and halare, to breathe. The same halare sits inside exhale, breathing out, and inside halitosis, the medical name for breath that has gone wrong. Learn the one root and three words come with it.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂enh₁-
Latin
inhalare — to breathe on (breathe in)
English, today
inhale
Built from
From Latin inhalare (“to breathe on (breathe in)”), from in (“in, into, on”) + halare (“to breathe”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA