sweat bullets

Idioms  

1. Perspire profusely; also, suffer mental anguish. For example, We were sweating bullets, sitting in the sun through all those graduation speeches, or It was their first baby, and David was sweating bullets while Karen was in labor. The bullets in this expression allude to drops of perspiration the size of bullets. [Slang; mid-1900s]

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Example Sentences

De Luca and Abdy have bet on big budget projects by auteur directors not based on tested intellectual property, the kinds of movies that make risk-averse studio chiefs sweat bullets.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 2, 2025

Publicists sweat bullets; suits and countersuits are threatened.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 28, 2022

I sweat bullets over every sentence, and sometimes, you know, a day will pass and I've written one paragraph, and I've been at the computer for four hours.

From Time Magazine Archive