indrawing

English

Etymology

From in- +‎ drawing.

Noun

indrawing (plural indrawings)

1. An inhalation of breath; an inspiration.
   • 1910, Myrtle Reed, Master of the Vineyard‎:

     But--oh," she added, with a sharp indrawing of her breath, "how I did love him!"

   • 1906, Fred M. White, The Slave of Silence‎:

     The words came with a fierce hissing indrawing of the speaker's breath.

   • 1897, Maud Wilder Goodwin, Flint‎:

     But the only outward expression they gained was a throwing back of the head, and a deep indrawing of the breath, followed by the quite uninspired exclamation, "Holloa, there's the ocean!"

2. The drawing inward of anything.
   • 1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC:

     Watt saw the little movements of the stuff, the little bulgings and crumplings, and the sudden indrawings, where it was nipped, between forefinger and thumb probably, for those are the nippers.