by the sweat of one's brow
By hard work, as in The only way he'll succeed is by the sweat of his brow. This figurative usage appears in the Bible (Genesis 31:9), where Adam's punishment for eating fruit in Eden is “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”—that is, he will have to work for his bread, or living. [c. 1600]
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Words nearby by the sweat of one's brow
by the numbers, by the same token, by the seat of the pants, by the short hairs, by the skin of one's teeth, by the sweat of one's brow, by the way, Bytom, bytownite, by turns, by virtue of
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.