sweat

Formssweats, sweating, sweated

1. 1
   noununcountable

   Fluid that the body releases through pores in the skin, usually during physical exertion or heat, helping regulate body temperature and remove certain compounds from the blood.

   Beads of sweat formed on her brow as the courtroom grew warmer.

   The marathoner's jersey was soaked with sweat by mile twenty.

   Similarperspiration

   Note

   The oldest layer of the word: Old English swāt, from an Indo-European root that already meant "to sweat." The verb came by a parallel road, Old English swǣtan, with cousins in Dutch zweten, German schwitzen and Danish svede; shvitz is the same word, arrived by another route. As a fluid it is a mass noun. For a sweat with an article, see the state of sweating.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To emit sweat through the pores of the skin, as from heat or exertion.

   Runners sweat heavily in humid weather.

   She sweated through her blouse during the nerve-racking presentation.

   Similarperspire

   Note

   The basic verb, and the place where its irregular past shows. Sweated is the usual past tense and participle, but plain sweat survives in both slots, so she sweat through her shirt and he had sweat through it are both possible. Most of the verb's other uses, for cheese, pipes, crops or onions, borrow its picture of moisture appearing on a surface.

3. 3
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To worry; to feel anxious or uneasy.

   There's no need to sweat; the flight is only an hour late.

   He sweated for a week while the loan application was under review.

   Similarworry, fret

   Oppositerelax

4. 4
   verbcolloquialtransitive

   To worry about a particular thing or situation.

   Don't sweat the seating chart; nobody will remember it after the wedding.

   He sweated the decision for weeks before finally signing the lease.

   Note

   The worrying verb with an object, and it is happiest in the negative. Don't sweat it and don't sweat the small stuff are reassurances, telling someone the matter is not worth the anxiety. Positive uses exist: Brooks Barnes, writing in The New York Times in 2010, says few matters are sweated more by studio executives than their franchises. Without an object, as in plain "to worry", nothing is named.

5. 5
   nounfigurativelyuncountable

   Hard work; strenuous effort or toil.

   The bridge was built with the sweat of thousands of laborers.

   Every dollar she earned came from honest sweat.

   Similartoil, labor, effort, exertion

   Note

   Labor named by what it wrings from the body. The figure is old and solemn: by the sweat of one's brow echoes Genesis 3:19, and blood, sweat, and tears keeps it in a fixed triplet. In ordinary prose it sits comfortably after of or with (built with the sweat of thousands) and rarely takes a plural. The verb has its own version in the "work hard" verb.

6. 6
   verbcolloquialintransitive

   To work hard; to labor strenuously.

   The founders sweated for a decade before the company turned a profit.

   Stagehands sweat behind the scenes so the show looks effortless.

   Similarslog, slave

   Oppositeidle, laze, loaf

   Note

   Effort measured by its bodily cost: work hard enough to make you perspire, whether or not you literally do. Its favorite construction takes over plus the task that resists you, as in sweating over an essay all day. Slog stresses plodding length and slave stresses servitude. Here the stress falls on strain. The past can be either sweated or plain sweat.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   The state of one who is sweating; known in medicine as diaphoresis.

   She broke into a cold sweat when the elevator stopped between floors.

   A light sweat is normal during a brisk walk.

   Similarperspiration

   Note

   Here the word names a condition rather than a fluid, which is why it can take an article and an adjective: a cold sweat, a nervous sweat, a light sweat. Nerves bring it on as readily as heat. The mere thought of tomorrow's interview can put someone into a sweat. Diaphoresis is the clinician's name for the same state.

8. 8
   verbintransitive

   To become covered with drops of water as moisture from the air condenses on a cool surface.

   Cold water pipes sweat in humid basements.

   The bottle sweated on the picnic table all afternoon.

9. 9
   verbslangtransitive

   To put someone under pressure; to stress someone out.

   My landlord keeps sweating me about the rent.

   Quit trying to sweat the new hires; they're doing fine.

   Similarhassle, pressure, hound, badger, pester

   Note

   Street and police slang for leaning on someone by harassing, crowding or interrogating them. N.W.A used it in 1988 for anyone who pressed the speaker. In Noire's Thug-A-Licious (2006), the cops "sweated" a woman's husband, the interrogation use. It often appears as a complaint in the imperative, stop sweatin' me, and it belongs firmly to casual speech.

10. 10
    verbcolloquialtransitive

    To extract money, labor, or effort from someone through harsh or unfair treatment.

    The mill owners sweated their laborers six days a week for pennies.

    Loan sharks sweat their debtors with threats and endless fees.

    Similarbleed

    Note

    Pressure turned into profit, and the object is whoever or whatever gets squeezed: to sweat labourers, to sweat a spendthrift. The same idea survives in sweatshop and sweated labor. Railway engineering has an unashamed modern version. In Tom Allett's 2022 article in RAIL, an engineer speaks of trying to "sweat the asset," running track for years beyond its last overhaul to save money.

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