with bated breath
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Holding one's breath in anticipation or suspense
Literally: holding breath
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
For a few moments she imagined the scene as dark - suited managers with grim faces waited with bated breath for the one man who could step in and save the company …
George lay with bated breath until he heard the taxi turn at the end of the street, then jumped from the bed.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “with bated breath” mean?
Holding one's breath in anticipation or suspense Literally: holding breath
Is “with bated breath” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.