\Res`pi*ra"tion\ (r?s`p?*r?"sh?n), n. [L.
respiratio: cf. F. respiration. See {Respire}.]
1. The act of respiring or breathing again, or catching one's
   breath.
2. Relief from toil or suffering: rest. [Obs.]
         Till the day Appear of respiration to the just And
         vengeance to the wicked.              --Milton.
3. Interval; intermission. [Obs.] --Bp. Hall.
4. (Physiol.) The act of resping or breathing; the act of
   taking in and giving out air; the aggregate of those
   processes bu which oxygen is introduced into the system,
   and carbon dioxide, or carbonic acid, removed.
Note: Respiration in the higher animals is divided into:
      ({a}) Internal respiration, or the interchange of
      oxygen and carbonic acid between the cells of the body
      and the bathing them, which in one sense is a process
      of nutrition. ({b}) External respiration, or the
      gaseous interchange taking place in the special
      respiratory organs, the lungs. This constitutes
      respiration proper. --Gamgee. In the respiration of
      plants oxygen is likewise absorbed and carbonic acid
      exhaled, but in the light this process is obscured by
      another process which goes on with more vigor, in which
      the plant inhales and absorbs carbonic acid and exhales
      free oxygen.