From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishin the same breathin the same breatha) TIME/AT THE SAME TIME (also in the next breath) used to say that someone has said two things at once that are so different from each other they cannot both be true He criticized the film, then predicted in the same breath that it would be a great success. b) LIKE/SIMILARif you mention two people or things in the same breath, you show that you think they are alike or are related I became nervous when the doctor mentioned my mother’s name and ‘cancer’ in the same breath.in the same breath as/with a young poet mentioned in the same breath as T.S. Eliot → breath
Examples from the Corpus
breath as/with• Mostly when they are mentioned they are mentioned in the same breath as legacies.• Unpredictable recordings like this one keep him from being mentioned in the same breath as the Rippingtons.• No, perhaps you'd better not mention loo paper in the same breath as Easter eggs. 