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I want to describe breathe quickly because of exercise.

I Googled, but the two suggested answers are not proper.

  • to breathe deeply is to inhale the fresh air. link
  • to gasp is to inhale shortly due to being scared or shocked. link

What is the proper description?

Bookeater
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Superuser
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  • I think your image search is misleading you. "Gasp!" as an exclamation is usually used as you describe, but the verb has many more uses. Try looking up "gasping for breath" and I think you'll see images of people who are short of breath from exercise. – 1006a Jan 07 '18 at 09:41

2 Answers2

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You perhaps refer to panting?

Pant

Breathe with short, quick breaths, typically from exertion or excitement.
‘he was panting when he reached the top’

Reference:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/pant

Bookeater
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    Was about to post this answer, +1. – alwayslearning Jan 07 '18 at 08:33
  • Thank you very much for your answer and edit. Is panting a common usage? – Superuser Jan 08 '18 at 06:17
  • Pant common? I'd say yes looking at https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=pant&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cpant%3B%2Cc0 with a usage of 0.000050% which is about 1/6th of a VERY common word like 'internet'. – Bookeater Jan 08 '18 at 15:44
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Also to puff:

to breathe fast and with difficulty, usually because you have been exercising:

  • He came puffing up the stairs. [ + speech ] "I ran all the way home," she puffed (= said while puffing).

(Cambridge Dictionary)

Community
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user 66974
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  • Thank you very much for your answer. Somehow I google puffing and images of steam train pouring out steam appears? – Superuser Jan 08 '18 at 06:18