gasp

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
gasp/ɡɑːsp/

▶verb

• 1 catch one's breath with an open mouth, owing to pain or astonishment.

  ■ (gasp for) strain to obtain (air) by gasping.

• 2 (be gasping for) Brit. informal be desperate to obtain or consume; crave: I'm gasping for a drink!

▶noun a convulsive catching of breath.

– phrases
the last gasp the point of exhaustion, death, or completion.

– origin ME: from ON geispa ‘to yawn’.