Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or an instance of exhaling.
  • noun Something, such as air or vapor, that is exhaled.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or process of exhaling, or emitting as an effluence; evaporation.
  • noun That which is exhaled; that which is emitted as or like breath, or which rises in the form of vapor; emanation; effluvium: as, exhalations from marshes, animal or vegetable bodies, decaying matter, and other substances.
  • noun In heraldry, a representation of a waterspout, a torrent of rain falling from a cloud, or some similar meteorological phenomenon: a rare bearing, used as a rebus by a person whose name allows of it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or process of exhaling, or sending forth in the form of steam or vapor; evaporation.
  • noun That which is exhaled, or which rises in the form of vapor, fume, or steam; effluvium; emanation
  • noun archaic A bright phenomenon; a meteor.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act or process of exhaling, or sending forth in the form of steam or vapor; evaporation.
  • noun That which is exhaled, or which rises in the form of vapor, fume, or steam; effluvium; emanation; as, exhalations from the earth or flowers, decaying matter, etc.
  • noun A bright phenomenon; a meteor.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the act of expelling air from the lungs
  • noun exhaled breath

Etymologies

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Examples

  • A copious _exhalation_ of moisture takes place in breathing, which presents a striking analogy to the exhalation from the surface of the skin already described.

    Popular Education For the use of Parents and Teachers, and for Young Persons of Both Sexes Ira Mayhew 1854

  • Some writers look upon Fumid exhalation, which is a compound of

    On Sense and the Sensible 2002

  • Some writers look upon Fumid exhalation, which is a compound of

    On Sense and the Sensible 2002

  • And the mixture of respiration with the air always makes some new exhalation which is altered and changed by the flux of the air coming from abroad and again going out.

    Essays and Miscellanies 2004

  • Rumors are a kind of exhalation or intellectual perfume thrown off by the news of the day.

    Mince Pie Christopher Morley 1923

  • As to the scientific element in this compromise, De Angelis holds, in his general introduction regarding meteorology, that the main material cause of comets is "exhalation," and says, "If this exhalation is thick and sticky, it blazes into a comet."

    A History of the warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom 1896

  • I conceive of it as an exhalation which is given off during courtship and gradually saturates whatever is in contact with the motionless body of the female.

    Social Life in the Insect World Jean-Henri Fabre 1869

  • The colours of their canoes and clothes were softened by the dim air and long use, and there seemed to accompany each boat and each person an atmosphere within this other haze, a spiritual kind of exhalation; so that one might have thought them, with the crucifixes on their breasts, and that unworldly, distinguished look which comes to those who live much with nature, as sons of men going upon such mission as did they who went into the far land with Arthur.

    The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

  • She spilled her neurons across the dissecting board of the violin, breathed deep and forced herself outward with every exhalation.

    No Title Brianne 2011

  • She gave an exasperated laugh, a sharp exhalation of air.

    Crossed J.F. Lewis 2011

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  • We lay near each other but not touching, silent recipients of Pan's globally ignored dawn suite, a soft exhalation through turf and leaf, the whirr of small wings, the introspective clambering of beetles, the shiver of water. From "The Last Werewolf" by Glen Duncan.

    March 18, 2012