hyperventilate

1. (intransitive) To breathe quickly and deeply, especially at an abnormally rapid rate.Examples: "When I tried it, I hyperventilated."; "Sometimes her prose hyperventilates ("Once, years ago, his and N.'s love for each other had glowed like phosphorescent fire on the surfaces of their bodies"), and she has a weakness for epiphanies ("There was a man, no longer young, though not yet old, who, traveling alone in northern Europe, began to feel that his soul was being drained slowly, almost secretly from him, drop by drop")."; "Sometimes on the highway I had to pull over to hyperventilate and sob."Synonyms: overbreatheintransitive