breath-catching

breath-catching (comparative more breath-catching, superlative most breath-catching)

1. Inspiring awe or deep admiration; impressive.
   • 2004, Mel Bradshaw, Death in the Age of Steam: A Mystery, →ISBN, page 99:

     The theory was breath-catching, but quickly fell apart when the accountant could give no account of what Sibyl might have done with Theresa's body.

   • 2010, James Neufeld, Lois Marshall: A Biography, →ISBN, page 239:

     Donal Henahan reported that her performance of it was “breath-catching in its vocal warmth and emotional power.”

   • 2011, Harry Harrison, Tunnel Through the Deeps, →ISBN:

     For here was a vista that was breath-catching and inspiring, a wholly new thing come into the world.

2. Extremely frightening or overwhelming.
   • 1964 June 5, “Now Man Conquers Mt. Eiffel”, in Life, volume 56, number 23, page 106:

     To cap the feat, their leader made a breath-catching descent by what mountain men call a rappel, riding down a rope almost 400 feet.

   • 2009, R.V. Jones, Most Secret War, →ISBN:

     I asked whether he would mind if I looked through them, and after a few minutes I found the map: it was a breath-catching moment for, as I unfolded it, I saw that it must show the deployment of a whole searchlight regiment covering the entire southern half of Belgium.

   • 2014, Elizabeth Power, Back in the Lion's Den, →ISBN:

     He was moving towards her with a purposefully predatory stride, stopping only when he was breath-catching inches away from her.

3. Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: see breath,‎ catching. (Can we add an example for this sense?)