When we take a drink, we pause after taking a certain amount, usually a mouthful of this. What are the pauses called? Supposing X is drinking something. They took some of this, and stopped five times in between. Do we say any of the following:
-
They took the drink in five breaths.
-
They took the drink in five breathing pauses.
-
They took five breathing pauses while taking the drink.
-
They took five gulps while drinking.
Best Answer
You're looking for a name for the pause between mouthfuls when actually you need a word for the mouthfuls themselves.
Small mouthfuls of liquid are called "sips", larger ones "gulps".
If you said "they drank the glass of water" that could mean they drank it all in one go. If you said "they sipped the glass of water" that means they took small sips of it, so the pauses in between are tacit.
Having said that, if you said "they spent the night drinking whiskey" I'm pretty sure nobody would think that meant they had whiskey pouring down their throat all night long without pausing to take a breath. You could say "they spent the night sipping whiskey" and that paints a more descriptive picture.
Once you use a word like "sip" or "gulp" there would be likely no need to describe any gap inbetween. Some exceptions to this might be if you were creatively describing such a huge succession of gulps that he struggled for breath afterwards. In British English there is a coloqiaul expression for when someone is eating their food too quickly which is to ask them them "come up for air". In normal speech though it would be unnecessary to say someone took a breath between sips.