draw breath

1. To take a break or rest. You keep going while I sit down and draw breath for a minute. The ER was overrun with patients after the train crash. We didn't have a chance to draw breath in between patients. Sheesh, I won't have a moment to draw breath today with all these back-to-back meetings.

2. To live. No sweeter woman than your mother has ever drawn breath. I want to be remembered as one of the foremost Hemingway scholars to have ever drawn breath! I can't believe their darling baby girl only drew breath for a few minutes after her birth. What a tragedy.

draw ˈbreath

(British English) (American English draw a ˈbreath)
1 stop doing something and rest: She talks all the time and hardly stops to draw breath.
2 (literary) live; be alive: He was as kind a man as ever drew breath.