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Sweat definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SWEAT, n. swet. [L. sudor.]
1. The fluid or sensible moisture which issues out of the pores of the skin of an animal.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Genesis 3.
2. Labor; toil; drudgery.
3. Moisture evacuated from any substance; as the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack.
SWEAT, v.i. swet. pret. and pp. sweat or sweated. Swot is obsolete. [L. sudo.]
1. To emit sensible moisture through the pores of the skin; to perspire. Horses sweat; oxen sweat little or not at all.]
2. To toil; to labor; to drudge.
He'd have the poets sweat.
3. To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.
SWEAT, v.t. swet. To emit or suffer to flow from the pores; to exsude.
For him the rich Arabia sweats her gums.
1. To cause to emit moisture from the pores of the skin. His physicians attempted to sweat him by the most powerful sudorifics.
They sweat him profusely.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: salty fluid secreted by sweat glands; "sweat poured off his brow" [syn: perspiration, sweat, sudor]
2: agitation resulting from active worry; "don't get in a stew"; "he's in a sweat about exams" [syn: fret, stew, sweat, lather, swither]
3: condensation of moisture on a cold surface; "the cold glasses were streaked with sweat"
4: use of physical or mental energy; hard work; "he got an A for effort"; "they managed only with great exertion" [syn: effort, elbow grease, exertion, travail, sweat] v
1: excrete perspiration through the pores in the skin; "Exercise makes one sweat" [syn: sweat, sudate, perspire]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (sweat or sweated; sweating) Etymology: Middle English sweten, from Old English sw?tan, from sw?t sweat; akin to Old High German sweiz sweat, Latin sudare to sweat, Greek hidr?s sweat Date: before 12th century intransitive verb 1. a. to excrete moisture in visible quantities through the openings of the sweat glands ; perspire b. to labor or exert oneself so as to cause perspiration 2. a. to emit or exude moisture <cheese sweats in ripening> b. to gather surface moisture in beads as a result of condensation <stones sweat at night> c. (1) ferment (2) putrefy 3. to undergo anxiety or mental or emotional distress <sweat through final exams> 4. to become exuded through pores or a porous surface ; ooze transitive verb 1. to emit or seem to emit from pores ; exude 2. to manipulate or produce by hard work or drudgery 3. to get rid of or lose (weight) by or as if by sweating or being sweated 4. to make wet with perspiration 5. a. to cause to excrete moisture from the skin b. to drive hard ; overwork c. to exact work from at low wages and under unfair or unhealthful conditions d. slang to give the third degree to 6. to cause to exude or lose moisture; especially to subject (as tobacco leaves) to fermentation 7. a. to extract something valuable from by unfair or dishonest means ; fleece b. to remove particles of metal from (a coin) by abrasion 8. a. to heat (as solder) so as to melt and cause to run especially between surfaces to unite them; also to unite by such means <sweat a pipe joint> b. to heat so as to extract an easily fusible constituent <sweat bismuth ore> c. to sauté in a covered vessel until natural juices are exuded 9. slang to worry about <doesn't sweat the small stuff — Barry McDermott> II. noun Date: 13th century 1. hard work ; drudgery 2. the fluid excreted from the sweat glands of the skin ; perspiration 3. moisture issuing from or gathering in drops on a surface 4. a. the condition of one sweating or sweated b. a spell of sweating 5. a state of anxiety or impatience 6. plural a. sweat suit b. sweatpants

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 moisture exuded through the pores of the skin, esp. from heat or nervousness. 2 a state or period of sweating. 3 colloq. a state of anxiety (was in a sweat about it). 4 colloq. a drudgery, effort. b a laborious task or undertaking. 5 condensed moisture on a surface. --v. (past and past part. sweated or US sweat) 1 intr. exude sweat; perspire. 2 intr. be terrified, suffering, etc. 3 intr. (of a wall etc.) exhibit surface moisture. 4 intr. drudge, toil. 5 tr. heat (meat or vegetables) slowly in fat or water to extract the juices. 6 tr. emit (blood, gum, etc.) like sweat. 7 tr. make (a horse, athlete, etc.) sweat by exercise. 8 tr. a cause to drudge or toil. b (as sweated adj.) (of goods, workers, or labour) produced by or subjected to long hours under poor conditions. 9 tr. subject (hides or tobacco) to fermentation in manufacturing. Phrases and idioms: by the sweat of one's brow by one's own hard work. no sweat colloq. there is no need to worry. sweat-band a band of absorbent material inside a hat or round a wrist etc. to soak up sweat. sweat blood colloq. 1 work strenuously. 2 be extremely anxious. sweat gland Anat. a spiral tubular gland below the skin secreting sweat. sweating-sickness an epidemic fever with sweating prevalent in England in the 15th-16th c. sweat it out colloq. endure a difficult experience to the end. Etymology: ME swet(e), alt. (after swete v. f. OE swætan OHG sweizzen roast) of swote f. OE swat f. Gmc

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sweat Sweat, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sweat or Sweated (Obs. Swat); p. pr. & vb. n. Sweating.] [OE. sweten, AS. sw[ae]tan, fr. sw[=a]t, n., sweat; akin to OFries. & OS. sw[=e]t, D. zweet, OHG. sweiz, G. schweiss, Icel. sviti, sveiti, Sw. svett, Dan. sved, L. sudor sweat, sudare to sweat, Gr. ?, ?, sweat, ? to sweat, Skr. sv[=e]da sweat, svid to sweat. [root]178. Cf. Exude, Sudary, Sudorific.] 1. To excrete sensible moisture from the pores of the skin; to perspire. --Shak. 2. Fig.: To perspire in toil; to work hard; to drudge. He 'd have the poets sweat. --Waller. 3. To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sweat Sweat, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Sweat or Sweated (Obs. Swat); p. pr. & vb. n. Sweating.] [OE. sweten, AS. sw[ae]tan, fr. sw[=a]t, n., sweat; akin to OFries. & OS. sw[=e]t, D. zweet, OHG. sweiz, G. schweiss, Icel. sviti, sveiti, Sw. svett, Dan. sved, L. sudor sweat, sudare to sweat, Gr. ?, ?, sweat, ? to sweat, Skr. sv[=e]da sweat, svid to sweat. [root]178. Cf. Exude, Sudary, Sudorific.] 1. To excrete sensible moisture from the pores of the skin; to perspire. --Shak. 2. Fig.: To perspire in toil; to work hard; to drudge. He 'd have the poets sweat. --Waller. 3. To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sweat Sweat, n. [Cf. OE. swot, AS. sw[=a]t. See Sweat, v. i.] 1. (Physiol.) The fluid which is excreted from the skin of an animal; the fluid secreted by the sudoriferous glands; a transparent, colorless, acid liquid with a peculiar odor, containing some fatty acids and mineral matter; perspiration. See Perspiration. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. --Gen. iii. 19. 2. The act of sweating; or the state of one who sweats; hence, labor; toil; drudgery. --Shak. 3. Moisture issuing from any substance; as, the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack. --Mortimer. 4. The sweating sickness. [Obs.] --Holinshed. 5. (Man.) A short run by a race horse in exercise. Sweat box (Naut.), a small closet in which refractory men are confined. Sweat glands (Anat.), sudoriferous glands. See under Sudoriferous.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Sweat Sweat, v. t. 1. To cause to excrete moisture from the skin; to cause to perspire; as, his physicians attempted to sweat him by most powerful sudorifics. 2. To emit or suffer to flow from the pores; to exude. It made her not a drop for sweat. --Chaucer. With exercise she sweat ill humors out. --Dryden. 3. To unite by heating, after the application of soldier. 4. To get something advantageous, as money, property, or labor from (any one), by exaction or oppression; as, to sweat a spendthrift; to sweat laborers. [Colloq.] To sweat coin, to remove a portion of a piece of coin, as by shaking it with others in a bag, so that the friction wears off a small quantity of the metal. The only use of it [money] which is interdicted is to put it in circulation again after having diminished its weight by ``sweating'', or otherwise, because the quantity of metal contains is no longer consistent with its impression. --R. Cobden.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(sweats, sweating, sweated) 1. Sweat is the salty colourless liquid which comes through your skin when you are hot, ill, or afraid. Both horse and rider were dripping with sweat within five minutes... 2. When you sweat, sweat comes through your skin. Already they were sweating as the sun beat down upon them. VERB: V • sweating ...symptoms such as sweating, irritability, anxiety and depression. N-UNCOUNT 3. If someone is in a sweat, they are sweating a lot. Every morning I would break out in a sweat... I really don't feel a bit sick, no night sweats, no fevers. N-COUNT 4. If someone is in a cold sweat or in a sweat, they feel frightened or embarrassed. The very thought brought me out in a cold sweat. PHRASE: PHR after v, v-link ADJ 5. to sweat blood: see blood

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

swet (ze`ah (Ge 3:19), yeza` (Eze 44:18); hidros (2 Macc 2:26; Lu 22:44)): "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread" (Ge 3:19). Somewhat difficult is the passage, which the Revised Version (British and American) renders: "But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok .... shall have linen tires upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causeth sweat," literally, "they shall not gird themselves with sweat" (Eze 44:15,18). The idea is evidently that profuse perspiration would make their ministrations unpleasant. The rule was of special importance in the sultry climate of Palestine.

Luke, the physician, describing the agony of the Lord in Gethsemane, says: "His sweat became as it were great drops (thromboi) of blood falling down upon the ground" (Lu 22:44, the Revised Version (British and American), following Codex Sinaiticus (a), Codex Alexandrinus, Codex Vaticanus etc., notes in margin: "Many ancient authorities omit Lu 22:43,44"). There are two difficulties of interpretation in this passage, apart from the difficulty which the physiological explanation of the phenomenon presents:

(1) the word (thrombos) translated "drop" means literally, "a clot of blood," "a lump," "a curd," and is nowhere else used in the sense of drop.

(2) It has been generally accepted that the sweat of the brow of Jesus had become bloody in appearance and in character, a symptom called in ancient medicine haimatodes hidros, "bloody sweat."

It must, however, be observed that this translation would make the Greek particle hosei, superfluous, by which, not the identity of the sweat with drops of blood, but a certain similarity or comparison must be intended. Ch. Th. Kuinoel, in his Latin commentary on the historical books of the New Testament (Leipzig, 1809, II, 654), has given all known parallel instances in history and legend, which seem to prove that under certain psychological or physiological conditions, though rarely, haimatodes hidros has occurred.

Olshausen in his Commentary, II, 469, thinks that the following points of comparison might have been in the mind of Luke:

(1) the sweat may have appeared on the forehead of Jesus in heavy drops;

(2) these may have dropped visibly to the ground, just as drops of blood fall from a wound;

(3) in addition, possibly a reddish color may have been noticeable, owing to an exudation of the arteries, though the latter is not directly expressed in the words of the evangelist. See also Dr. Stroud, On the Physical Cause of the Death of Christ, 183; Bynaeus, De morte Christi, II, 33.

The people of Palestine in Greek-Roman times were generally provided with handkerchiefs, used especially to wipe off the perspiration. The fashion was derived from Rome, whence the name of these napkins became soudarion, Latin sudarium. The late legend of Berenice or Veronica, who presented her handkerchief to the Saviour on His way to be crucified, and who found, when it had been returned to her by the Lord, that His features had been imprinted upon the cloth, is a reminiscence of this use. These handkerchiefs were frequently used to tie up small bundles of certain possessions, money, etc. (Lu 19:20). As a rule the dead had their faces covered with one, or had it tied around the head (Joh 11:44; 20:7). In Ephesus the handkerchiefs of Paul were carried to the sick, and achieved miraculous cures (Ac 19:12).

The verb hidroo, "to sweat," is found in a rather difficult passage of the Didache (i.6), which is introduced as a quotation, the source of which, however, we do not know: "Let thy alms sweat into (in ?) thy hands, until thou knowest to whom thou givest." The context seems to show that we have here a free repetition of the arguments of Sirach 12:1 ff. so that the meaning would be: "In giving charity, do not give indiscriminately or thoughtlessly, but consider carefully so that no one who is unworthy receive your benefaction." Still it is not impossible that the text is corrupt in the passage.

H. L. E. Luering

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. 1. Perspiration, exudation, excretion, sweating, cutaneous excretion. 2. Labor, toil, drudgery. 3. Ooze, reek, exuding moisture. II. v. n. 1. Perspire. 2. Toil, labor, drudge. 3. Emit moisture. III. v. a. 1. Exude, emit by the pores. 2. Put into a perspiration.

Moby Thesaurus

BO, abide, ado, agitation, agonize, aim, all-overs, anguish, anxiety, await, bake, be determined, be in heat, beaded brow, beads of sweat, befuddlement, bewilderment, bide, blaze, bleed, bloom, body odor, boil, bother, botheration, breathless impatience, broil, burden, burn, burn to, burst, bustle, busy, chafe, chafing, chaos, chills of fear, choke, chyle, cloud, cold creeps, cold shivers, cold sweat, colostrum, combust, commotion, condense, confusion, cook, creeps, daze, diaphoresis, dirty work, discharge, discombobulation, discomfiture, discomposure, disconcertion, disorder, disorganization, disorientation, disquiet, disquietude, distill, disturbance, dither, dithers, do double duty, donkeywork, dribble, drip, dripple, drive, drop, drudge, drudgery, eagerness, elucubrate, embarrassment, employment, endeavor, excitement, exudate, exudation, exude, fag, fatigue, fear and trembling, feery-fary, ferment, fidgetiness, fighter, fighting man, filter, fit, flame, flame up, flap, flare, flare up, flicker, flummox, flurry, flush, fluster, flutter, flutteriness, fog, frenzy, fret, fretfulness, fretting, fry, fuddle, fuddlement, fume, fuss, fussiness, gasp, get excited, gleet, glow, goose bumps, gooseflesh, grind, gurgle, handiwork, handwork, hard work, hardly wait, haste, hasten, haze, heartquake, heebie-jeebies, hit the ball, honest sweat, horripilation, hubbub, hullabaloo, humor, hustle, ichor, impatience, impatientness, impetuousness, incandesce, industry, inquietude, itch to, jimjams, jitters, jumble, jump the gun, jumps, keep busy, labor, laboriousness, lachryma, lactation, lather, leach, leukorrhea, lick, lick of work, lixiviate, lucubrate, lymph, maelstrom, man-at-arms, manual labor, mark time, matter, maze, mess, milk, mist, moil, mucor, mucus, muddle, muddlement, mulct, nervousness, ooze, oppress, overdrive, overtask, overtax, overwork, palpitation, pant, parch, peccant humor, percolate, perplexity, perspiration, perspiration odor, perspire, perturbation, phlegm, pother, pour it on, pucker, purulence, pus, quaking, quiver of terror, quivers, radiate heat, rat race, resolve, restiveness, restlessness, rheum, roast, rook, ruffle, saliva, sanies, scald, scorch, scramble, scratch, scut work, seek, seep, seethe, serous fluid, serum, serviceman, sew, shakes, shimmer with heat, shivers, shuffle, simmer, sit up for, slave, slavery, slog, slogging, smolder, smother, snot, spadework, spark, spasm, spurt, spurtle, squirm, stay up for, steam, stew, stick, stifle, stir, strain, streams of sweat, strive, stroke, stroke of work, struggle, study, sudor, sudoresis, suffocate, suppuration, swaddy, swat, swatting, sweat and stew, sweat blood, sweat it out, sweat out, sweating, swelter, swirl, swivet, swot, swotting, task, tax, tear, teardrop, tense readiness, the whites, thrill of fear, tiresome work, tizzy, to-do, toast, toil, transude, travail, treadmill, trembles, trepidation, trepidity, trickle, tumult, uneasiness, unpatientness, unquiet, unquietness, unsettlement, upset, urine, vortex, wait, wait for, wait impatiently, wait on, wait up for, warrior, watch, watch and wait, water, weep, whirl, willies, wilt, work, work hard, work late, work overtime, worry