Some words are relegated to purely literary or poetic usage, and such is the case with “suspire,” a synonym for the verb “breathe.” You likely won’t catch the doctor asking you to “suspire deeply,” but you can find the verb scattered throughout literature and poetry since the mid-1400s. In Henry IV, Shakespeare wrote, “Did he suspire, that light and weightlesse dowlne Perforce must moue,” referring to Prince Henry watching King Henry IV’s deathbed and checking on his breathing.