gasp
part of speech
verb (gasp, gasps, gasped, gasping); noun (a gasp, gasps)
meaning for a pupil
1) To gasp means to breathe in suddenly and loudly with your mouth open, because you are surprised, shocked or in pain. tree →
2) To gasp for air or for breath means to struggle to breathe, for example after running or under water. tree →
3) A gasp is a sudden short breath like that. tree →
4) The last gasp means the very end, almost too late. tree →
sense in the lessons
In stories, a gasp shows surprise or shock: «Everyone gasped». In health and safety, gasping for breath can mean someone cannot breathe well; after exercise it is normal, but if someone is choking, in water or having an asthma attack, get help at once. Phrases: «gasp in surprise», «gasp for air», «gasp of horror», «a last-gasp goal» (in the final moments).
examples
- The audience gasped when the magician vanished. tree →
- I gasped when I saw the big spider. tree →
- He came up from the water gasping for air. tree →
- After the race we were all gasping. tree →
- There was a gasp of surprise from the class. tree →
- She gasped in pain when she twisted her ankle. tree →
- They scored a last-gasp goal to win. tree →
- «Oh no!» she gasped. tree →
- “John is not here now,” she gasped. tree →
note
Past: «gasped» (said like «gaspt»). A gasp is breathing in; a sigh is usually breathing out. If someone keeps gasping and cannot speak, it may be an emergency.
In the corpora
- Ollie gasps, "What's broken?" Dad smiles: "Nothing's broken, bud.
- A gasp, a scream or a dropped cup are clues that something surprising has happened.
- Behind him, the gate creaked open" makes the whole class gasp, because we want to know what is behind the gate.
- Sudden cold water makes you gasp and breathe fast, which makes swimming hard.
- Falling into icy water makes you gasp and quickly takes away your strength.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «gasp» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.