inhaler, n. 1. A small pressurized vessel containing measured futures. 2. An object that exists in two states: packed and not-yet-packed, the superposition collapsing only when the car door shuts Monday morning. 3. (Informal) The blue plastic proof that a child's breath is borrowed architecture—scaffolding you assemble each night so the lungs can hold their own shape by dawn. 4. See also: talisman, checklist item #1, the thing you will check for three times before reversing out of the driveway. 5. (Obsolete) Something you once forgot. Once.