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To respire is to breathe — to take air in and send it out. It is a rather formal or scientific verb. Doctors, , and older or poetic writing use it; almost nobody says “I need to respire” when they step outside. They say breathe. In science, animals and even plants are said to respire, meaning they exchange gases to stay alive. Though actually, in older literary English respire could also mean “to catch your breath again” after trouble, like a sigh of relief, but that use is rare now. The usual modern home for this word is the science page, sitting next to respiration and respiratory.
呼吸（文雅／科學用語；日常說 breathe）
組成From Middle English respiren, from Old French respirer or Latin respiro (“to blow back, breathe out”), from re- (“back”) + spiro (“to breathe, blow”).
同家族的字
- respirationthe noun for the process
- respiratorythe adjective, “to do with breathing”
- inspireshares Latin spiro, to breathe
- expireshares Latin spiro; older sense “breathe out”
原始詞典資料6 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
respireverb/ɹɪˈspʌɪə/
- 1
To breathe in and out successively.
- 2
To breathe in and out successively.
- The breath of heav'n fresh-blowing, pure and sweet, / With day-spring born; here leave me to respire.
- Second Day.—Hold the breath five seconds. Respire, and hold the breath ten seconds. Respire, and hold the breath fifteen seconds.
- 3
biologycytologymedicineTo take up oxygen and produce carbon dioxide (as animals do), or vice versa (as plants do).
- All living things respire or breathe. To many of us this means that they take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.
- 4
To (inhale and) exhale; to breathe.
- It is my opinion, that these animals, while they continue in the state of larvae, respire water and not air; and that they inspire the water, not by the mask, but by their posterior part, through which also they discharge it.
- They were the last moments he might ever respire near her, who was then doubtless wrapt in peaceful sleep, whilst he wandered distracted without.
- 5
archaicTo recover hope, courage, or strength after a time of difficulty.
respirenoun/ɹɪˈspʌɪə/
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obsoleteRest, respite.
- He cast to suffer him no more respire, But gan his sturdie sterne about to weld, And him so strongly stroke, that to the ground him feld.
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。