Hi,
Please could you tell me what ‘patient breathing’ means in the following sentence?
He stands there, feeling his full height, aware of his wife’s patient breathing and of the wintery bedroom air on his skin.
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It means that the author of the text recognizes that his wife’s patient is breathing. He is ware of the fact that the patient is breathing. He either sees and/or feels how the patient is breathing or he has another way of getting this information. Please let me know if this makes sense.
Он чувствует дыхание пациента.
The extract describes how a man gets up. He is a neurosurgeon but at that moment he is with his wife at the bedroom. I thought that ‘patient breathing’ referred to his wife and not the patient. Can ‘patient’ be the adjective in this sentence?
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Now that you have pointed it out and upon reading the sentence again I realized that ‘patient’ here actually is indeed an adjective describing his wife’s way of breathing.
Yes, and I’m trying to guess the meaning. Before I thought ‘patient’ as an adjective can refer to the trait of character. E.g. dinner will be soon - be patient!
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A person’s breathing can also be described as ‘patient’.
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Clearly ‘patient’ in this context suggests ‘regular’.
Alan
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Thank you very much!
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