sweat Meaning, Definition & Usage

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

WordNet

Sweat intransitive verb
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. , , sweat, to sweat, Skr. sveda sweat, svid to sweat. *178. Cf. Exude, Sudary, Sudorific.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Sweat or Sweated (obsolete Swat ); present participle & verbal noun Sweating
Definitions
  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.
Sweat transitive verb
Definitions
  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.
    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.
Sweat noun
Etymology
Cf. OE. swot, AS. swat. See Sweat, v. i.
Definitions
  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.

Webster 1913