Definition

1. Verb (intransitive):
   • To breathe at an abnormally rapid rate, especially to the point where the body loses carbon dioxide excessively. This is often a physiological response to stress, anxiety, or high altitude.
2. Verb (transitive):
   • To cause someone to breathe in this abnormally rapid way; to induce hyperventilation in a person, often as a medical procedure.

Usage and Examples

• Intransitive Verb (describing one's own breathing):
  • During the panic attack, she began to hyperventilate and felt dizzy.
  • If you hyperventilate at high altitude, it can worsen symptoms of altitude sickness.
• Transitive Verb (causing someone else to breathe rapidly):
  • For the test, the doctor will hyperventilate the patient to trigger certain brainwave patterns.
  • In some medical scenarios, it is necessary to hyperventilate a sedated patient.

Advanced Usage

• Medical/Clinical Context: The term is used precisely to describe both a pathological symptom and a controlled clinical maneuver.
  • The protocol required the technician to hyperventilate the subject for 30 seconds.
• Figurative/Informal Use: Sometimes used informally to describe a state of extreme excitement or anxiety.
  • Don't hyperventilate over the details; we'll figure it out. (This is a metaphorical extension.)

Variants and Related Words

• Hyperventilation (noun): The act or condition of hyperventilating.
  • Hyperventilation can lead to tingling in the fingers and lightheadedness.
• Hyperventilatory (adjective): Relating to or characterized by hyperventilation.
  • The patient exhibited hyperventilatory symptoms.

Synonyms

• Overbreathe: A more literal synonym, though less common in everyday use.
• Breathe rapidly/heavily: A descriptive phrase, though it lacks the specific medical connotation of excessive carbon dioxide loss.

Antonyms

• Breathe normally/steadily: To breathe at a regular, calm rate.
• Hypoventilate: To breathe at an abnormally slow or shallow rate, resulting in insufficient gas exchange.

Verb

1. breathe excessively hard and fast
   • The mountain climber started to hyperventilate
2. produce hyperventilation in
   • The nurses had to hyperventilate the patient