Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.

Breathe

Breathing like the Spring.
—Anonymous

Breathe like toads under ground.
—Anonymous

Breathed out, hard and still, as a statue might whisper.
—Joseph Conrad

The young lips breathe like a dewy rose
Fanned by the fire-fly’s wing.
—Eliza Cook

Breathing like the bellows of a forge.
—Lord De Tabley

Breathing like a second-hand bicycle pump.
—O. Henry

Brethe as the damask Rose.
—Robert Herrick

Breathing sweetness like a bridal bower.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes

She breathes sweet serene as ’twere a gentle spirit from the skies.
—Petrarch

Breathing like sanctified and pious bawds,
The better to beguile.
—William Shakespeare

Breathe
As March breathes back the spirit of winter.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne

Breathless as the deer
Driven hard to bay.
—Algernon Charles Swinburne