sweat

[ swet ]

/ swɛt /

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR sweat ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used without object), sweat or sweat·ed, sweat·ing.

to perspire, especially freely or profusely.

to exude moisture, as green plants piled in a heap or cheese.

to gather moisture from the surrounding air by condensation.

(of moisture or liquid) to ooze or be exuded.

Informal. to work hard.

Informal. to experience distress, as from anxiety.

(of tobacco) to ferment.

verb (used with object), sweat or sweat·ed, sweat·ing.

to excrete (perspiration, moisture, etc.) through the pores of the skin.

to exude in drops or small particles: The drying figs sweat tiny drops of moisture.

to send forth or get rid of with or like perspiration (often followed by out or off).

to wet or stain with perspiration.

to cause (a person, a horse, etc.) to perspire.

to cause to exude moisture, especially as a step in an industrial drying process: to sweat wood.

to earn, produce, or obtain (a result, promotion, compliment, etc.) by hard work.

to cause to lose (weight) as by perspiring or hard work: The hard week's work sweated five pounds off him.

to cause, force, or bring pressure on (a person, an animal, etc.) to work hard.

to employ (workers) at low wages, for long hours, or under other unfavorable conditions.

to labor with meticulous care over: The manufacturer of this beautiful car has really sweated the details.

Slang.

to obtain or extort (money) from someone.
to extort money from; fleece.

Slang. to subject to severe questioning; give the third degree to.

Metallurgy.

to heat (an alloy) in order to remove a constituent melting at a lower temperature than the alloy as a whole.
to heat (solder or the like) to melting.
to join (metal objects) by heating and pressing together, usually with solder.

to remove bits of metal from (gold coins) by shaking them against one another, as in a bag.Compare clip¹(def 4).

to cause (tobacco or cocoa) to ferment.

noun

the process of sweating or perspiring.

that which is secreted from sweat glands; perspiration.

a state or a period of sweating.

hard work.

Informal. a state of anxiety or impatience.

a process of inducing sweating or perspiration, or of being sweated, as in medical treatment.

moisture exuded from something or gathered on a surface.

an exuding of moisture, as by a substance.

an inducing of such exudation, as in some industrial process.

a run given to a horse for exercise, as before a race.

sweats, Informal. sweatpants, sweatshirts, sweat suits, or the like.

adjective

Informal.

(of clothes) made to be worn for exercise, sports, or other physical activity.
made of the absorbent fabric used for such clothes: sweat dresses.
of, for, or associated with such clothes: the sweat look in sportswear.

Verb Phrases

sweat out, Informal.

to await anxiously the outcome of; endure apprehensively: The accused sweated out the jury's deliberation.
to work arduously at or toward: The director sweated out a camera angle with the cinematographer.

Nearby words

swear on a stack of bibles, swear out, swear to, swearing-in, swearword, sweat, sweat bee, sweat blood, sweat bullets, sweat equity, sweat gland

Idioms

no sweat, Informal. with no difficulty or problem.

sweat blood, Informal.

to be under a strain; work strenuously.
to wait anxiously; worry: He was sweating blood while his friend was being questioned by the police.

sweat bullets, Informal.

to sweat profusely.
to be apprehensive; worry.

sweat it, Informal.

to wait anxiously; endure the best way one can: There was no news of survivors, so all we could do was sweat it.
to worry; be apprehensive: You'll do OK, so don't sweat it.

Origin of sweat

before 900; 1970–75 for def 6; (v.) Middle English sweten, Old English swǣtan to sweat, derivative of swāt (noun) (> obsolete English swote); (noun) Middle English, alteration of swote, influenced by the v.; cognate with Dutch zweet, German Schweiss, Old Norse sveiti, Sanskrit svedas; akin to Latin sūdor, Greek hidrṓs

Related forms

sweat·less, adjectivenon·sweat·ing, adjectiveun·sweat·ing, adjective

Synonym study

24. See perspiration.

Word story

Sweat has a very distinguished ancestry. It comes from the Proto-Indo-European root sweid-, swoid-, swid-. The suffixed form swoidos (a noun) appears in Germanic as swaitaz, regularly becoming swāt in Old English, Schweiss in German, and sveiti in Old Norse. The related form swoidōs- regularly becomes the noun sūdōr- (inflectional stem of sūdor ) in Latin, from which English derives sudorific “causing sweat” and sudoriparous “secreting sweat.” Greek, as is common, goes its own way and forms its noun from the variant root swid- extended with the suffix -ro- ( swidro- ) to form hidrṓs, from which English derives hidrosis (excessive production of sweat); the Greek form is made obscure by the cluster sw- becoming h-. The form swidro- becomes sviêdri in Latvian, a Baltic language that, like Lithuanian, is very resistant to change.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for sweat

For nearly her entire life Beyoncé has been giving us her blood, sweat, and tears in her career.
Bow Down, Bitches: How Beyoncé Turned an Elevator Brawl Into a Perfect Year|Kevin Fallon|December 31, 2014|DAILY BEAST
And how much do you need to sweat to stave off the disease that kills 500,000 people every year?
Running 15 Miles a Week Could Slash Alzheimer’s Risk|DailyBurn|December 12, 2014|DAILY BEAST
He wipes beads of sweat from his brow, and extends his hand out towards the crowd.
Revenge of the Rock Nerds: TV on the Radio’s Long Road to ‘Seeds’|Marlow Stern|December 3, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sweat poured from underneath his helmet and down the thin points of his sandy blond hair.
I Shot Bin Laden|Elliot Ackerman|November 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST

I tried to relax too, but I felt my stomach tighten and I began to sweat.
I Shot Bin Laden|Elliot Ackerman|November 16, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Sweat poured from his forehead, and the suit ventilator whined as it picked up the extra moisture.
Rip Foster in Ride the Gray Planet|Harold Leland Goodwin
I felt the sweat pouring from his face on to mine, and he smelt horribly of garlic.
The Secret Service Submarine|Cyril Arthur Edward Ranger Gull
A frown began to gather on the vintner's brow and a sweat in his palm.
The Goose Girl|Harold MacGrath
The priest raised his pale face, moist with the sweat of agony. '
Abbe Mouret's Transgression|Emile Zola
On her knees beside the bed, Maria Selva was wiping the sweat from his brow with a handkerchief.
The Saint|Antonio Fogazzaro

British Dictionary definitions for sweat

sweat

/ (swɛt) /

noun

the secretion from the sweat glands, esp when profuse and visible, as during strenuous activity, from excessive heat, etc; commonly also called perspirationRelated adjectives: sudatory, sudorific

the act or process of secreting this fluid

the act of inducing the exudation of moisture

drops of moisture given forth or gathered on the surface of something

informal a state or condition of worry or eagerness (esp in the phrase in a sweat)

slang drudgery or hard labourmowing lawns is a real sweat!

mainly US an exercise gallop given to a horse, esp on the day of a race

slang, mainly British a soldier, esp one who is old and experienced

no sweat! (interjection) slang an expression suggesting that something can be done without problems or difficulty

verb sweats, sweating, sweat or sweated

to secrete (sweat) through the pores of the skin, esp profusely

(tr) to make wet or stain with sweat

to give forth or cause to give forth (moisture) in dropletsa sweating cheese; the maple sweats sap

(intr) to collect and condense moisture on an outer surfacea glass of beer sweating in the sun

(intr) (of a liquid) to pass through a porous surface in droplets

(of tobacco leaves, cut and dried hay, etc) to exude moisture and, sometimes, begin to ferment or to cause (tobacco leaves, etc) to exude moisture

(tr) to heat (food, esp vegetables) slowly in butter in a tightly closed saucepan

(tr) to join (pieces of metal) by pressing together and heating

(tr) to heat (solder) until it melts

(tr) to heat (a partially fused metal) to extract an easily fusible constituent

to shake together (coins, esp gold coins) so as to remove particles for illegal use

informal to suffer anxiety, impatience, or distress

informal to overwork or be overworked

(tr) informal to employ at very low wages and under bad conditions

(tr) informal to extort, esp by tortureto sweat information out of a captive

(intr) informal to suffer punishmentyou'll sweat for this!

sweat blood informal

to work very hard
to be filled with anxiety or impatience

Derived Forms

sweatless, adjective

Word Origin for sweat

Old English swætan to sweat, from swāt sweat; related to Old Saxon swēt, Old Norse sveiti, Old High German sweiz, Latin sūdor, Sanskrit svedas

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Medicine definitions for sweat

sweat

[ swĕt ]

v.

To excrete perspiration through the pores in the skin; perspire.

n.

The colorless saline moisture excreted by the sweat glands; perspiration.

The process of sweating.

Science definitions for sweat

sweat

[ swĕt ]

The salty liquid given off by sweat glands in the skin of mammals. As sweat evaporates, the skin cools, causing a reduction in body heat.

Idioms and Phrases with sweat

sweat

In addition to the idioms beginning with sweat

sweat blood
sweat bullets
sweat of one's brow
sweat out

also see:

by the sweat of one's brow
in a cold sweat
no problem (sweat)