sweat
/swɛt/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms sweats sweating sweated sweaten
- noun Fluid that exits the body through pores in the skin usually due to physical stress and/or high temperature for the purpose of regulating body temperature and removing certain compounds from the circulation.
- noun The state of one who is sweating; diaphoresis. “Just thinking about the interview tomorrow puts me into a nervous sweat.”
- noun (figurative) Hard work; toil.
- noun (figurative) Moisture issuing from any substance.
- noun A short run by a racehorse as a form of exercise.
- noun (historical) The sweating sickness.
- noun (UK, military slang, especially WWI) A soldier (especially one who is old or experienced).
- noun (video games, slang) An extremely or excessively competitive player.
- verb (intransitive) To emit sweat.
- verb (transitive) To cause to excrete moisture through skin.
- verb To cause to perspire. “His physicians attempted to sweat him by most powerful sudorifics.”
- verb (intransitive, informal) To work hard. “I've been sweating over my essay all day.”
- verb (video games) To be extremely dedicated to winning a game; to play competitively. “There's no way we can win. These guys are sweating so hard.”
- verb (transitive, informal) To extract money, labour, etc. from, by exaction or oppression. “to sweat a spendthrift”
- verb (intransitive, informal) To worry.
- verb (transitive, informal) To worry about (something). “Don't sweat it!”
- proper noun A surname.
Synonyms
perspiration tryhard sudor perspire slave slog bleed fret worry stew lather swither effort elbow grease exertion travail sudate
Etymology
From Middle English swete, swet, swate, swote, from Old English swāt, from Proto-Germanic *swait-, *swaitą, from Proto-Indo-European *swoyd- (“to sweat”), o-grade of *sweyd- (“to sweat”). Cognate with West Frisian swit, Dutch zweet, German Schweiß, Danish sved, Norwegian Bokmål svette, Norwegian Nynorsk sveitte, Swedish svett, Yiddish שוויצן (shvitsn) (English shvitz), Latin sudor, French sueur, Italian sudore, Spanish sudor, Portuguese suor, Persian خوی (xway, “sweat”), Sanskrit स्वेद (svéda), Lithuanian sviedri, Tocharian B syā-, Albanian djersë, and Welsh chwys.
From Middle English sweten, from Old English swǣtan, from Proto-Germanic *swaitijaną (“to sweat”). Compare Dutch zweten, German schwitzen, Danish svede. Doublet of shvitz.
Webster’s 1913
- verb To excrete sensible moisture from the pores of the skin; to perspire. Shak.
- verb Fig.: To perspire in toil; to work hard; to drudge.
- verb To cause to excrete moisture from the skin; to cause to perspire; as, his physicians attempted to sweat him by most powerful sudorifics.
- verb To emit or suffer to flow from the pores; to exude.
Etymology [OE. sweten, AS. swætan, fr. swat, n., sweat; akin to OFries. & OS. swet, D. zweet, OHG. sweiz, G. schweiss, Icel. sviti, sveiti, Sw. svett, Dan. sved, L. sudor sweat, sudare to sweat, Gr. sveda sweat, svid to sweat. *178. Cf. Exude, Sudary, Sudorific.]
Etymology [Cf. OE. swot, AS. swat. See Sweat, v. i.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “sweat”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details