ppl. a. [f. BREATHE v. and BREATH sb. + -ED. In early instances it is not easy to separate the verbal from the noun-derivative, nor to fix the pronunciation.]
I. From the vb.
1. Exercised, put into breath, in (good) wind; esp. in well-breathed, and the like.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. vi. Though he be best brethed to endure.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. cxxxvi. [cxxxii.] 380. Rode forthe an easy passe to kepe their horses well brethed.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., Induct. ii. Thy gray-hounds are as swift As breathed Stags.
1637. Heywood, Roy. King, V. ix. Wks. 1874, VI. 79. The Falcon better breath’d, seiz’d on the Eagle.
1678. R. L’Estrange, Seneca’s Mor. (1702), 343. A Footman that is not breath’d, cannot keep pace with his Master’s Horse.
1704. Pope, Windsor For., 121. To plains with well-breath’d beagles we repair.
b. fig. † Lust-breathed (in Shaks.): animated or inspired by lust, or breathing lust (cf. well-read, fair-spoken).
1594. Shaks., Lucr., 3. Lust-breathed Tarquin. Ibid. (1607), Timon, I. i. 10. A most incomparable man, breath’d as it were, To an vntyreable and continuate goodness.
1647. Ward, Simp. Cobler, 14. It is a most toylsome taske to runne the wild-goose chase after a well breath’d Opinionist.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 631. To speak the rest, who better are forgot, Would tire a well breath’d Witness of the Plot.
2. Put out of breath, exhausted, winded.
1599. Porter, Angry Wom. Abingt., in Hazl., Dodsley, VII. 358. As good as a cry of hounds, to make a breath’d hare of me!
3. Exhaled, respired, inhaled and exhaled; uttered in a breath, whispered.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Jan., 40. The blossome … With breathed sighes is blowne away, and blasted. Ibid. (1596), F. Q., II. iii. 7. Vile Caytiue … Vnworthie of the commune breathed aire.
1629. Milton, Ode Nativ., 179. No nightly trance, or breathed spell, Inspires the pale-eyed priest.
1861. Smiles, Engineers, II. 220. The exhausted or breathed air.
4. Of wind-instruments: Played upon; cf. BREATHE v. 15. poet.
1822. Proctor (B. Cornwall), Lud. Sforza, i. 16. Like numbers floating from the breathed flute.
† 5. Breathed ware: ? tarnished goods; ‘BRAIDED ware.’
1661. Davenport, City Nt.-cap, IV. in Dodsley (1780), XI. 326. We vent no breath’d ware here.
II. From the sb.
6. Having breath; as in long-breathed: long-winded, or long-lived. (The 2 early quots. are doubtful.)
1555. Fardle Facions, II. xi. 260. Damoselles … softe as the Silke, and breathed like the Rose.
1628. Earle, Microcosm., xviii. 38. The rooms are ill breath’d.
1649. Selden, Laws Eng., I. lxiv. (1739), 132. Had the King been a little longer breathed with patience, he might have had his will upon easier terms.
1816. Scott, Antiq., xxi. ‘They werena a lang breathed generation, I reckon.’
1884. Mind, Jan., 125. It requires a long-breathed reader to accompany him through his devious course.
7. Phonology. Uttered with breath as opposed to voice; surd; cf. SONANT.
1877. Sweet, Handbk. Phonetics, 31. Consonants can therefore be breathed as well as voiced.
