What is the meaning of waiting with bated breath?
: in a nervous and excited state anticipating what will happen They waited for the answer on their application with bated breath.
Where does the phrase with bated breath come from?
You’ll breathe easier once you master this frequently misused phrase. Bated breath first appeared in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice in 1605. Using a shortened form of abated, which means “stopped or reduced,” the phrase refers to people holding their breath in excitement or fear as they wait to see what happens next.
Is waiting with bated breath?
Eagerly or anxiously, as in We waited for the announcement of the winner with bated breath. This expression literally means “holding one’s breath” (bate means “restrain”). Today it is also used somewhat ironically, indicating one is not all that eager or anxious.
Who said waiting with bated breath?
Shakespeare
Shakespeare is the first writer known to use it, in The Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock says to Antonio: “Shall I bend low and, in a bondman’s key, / With bated breath and whisp’ring humbleness, / Say this …”.
Is it baited or bated breath?
“Bated” is a form of the word “abate,” which means “to diminish, beat down, or reduce,” and it’s spelled B-A-T-E-D. “Baited breath” spelled that way—like fish bait—is wrong.
Is it baited or bated?
Remember: As an adjective, baited means “loaded with bait to lure an animal.” It is also the past tense of “bait,” which can mean either “use a lure” or “taunt.” Bated means “in an anxious or excited way.” In modern English, this word only commonly appears in the phrase bated breath.
What does the idiom Dickens mean?
what (in) the dickens. An exclamation used to emphasize surprise, shock, or bafflement.
Where did the phrase eating me out of house and home come from?
Note: This expression was used in Shakespeare’s play `Henry IV Part II’, act 2 scene 1 (1597). When asked why she wants her lodger Sir John Falstaff arrested, the landlady Mistress Quickly replies: `He hath eaten me out of house and home; he hath put all my substance into that fat belly of his.
What is the word bated?
transitive verb. 1 : to reduce the force or intensity of : restrain waited with bated breath.
How do you use bated breath in a sentence?
Flora and I waited with bated breath to hear what Evelyn considered sensible. I was waiting with bated breath for him to say something, anything, that wasn’t a cliché. Once, twice, and he waited with bated breath, trapped by a childhood memory. She waited with bated breath for their host to emerge from the shadows.
How do you spell bated like bated breath?
“Bated” is a form of the word “abate,” which means “to diminish, beat down, or reduce,” and it’s spelled B-A-T-E-D. So when you’re waiting with bated breath (you can think of that as abated breath), you’re so eager, anxious, excited, or frightened that you’re almost holding your breath.
Did Shakespeare Say What the Dickens?
Two great English writers are often associated with the phrase ‘what the dickens’. No surprise that one of them is Charles Dickens – the other is William Shakespeare. As it turns out, the phrase has nothing to do with either of them. Dickens is a euphemism for the word devil, possibly via devilkins.