sweat

noun

/swet/

Idioms

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liquid on skin

[uncountable] drops of liquid that appear on the surface of your skin when you are hot, ill or afraid synonym perspiration

beads of sweat
She wiped the sweat from her face.
By the end of the match, the sweat was pouring off him.
Their bodies were soaked in sweat.

hard work

[uncountable] hard work or effort (informal)

Growing your own vegetables sounds like a lot of sweat.
(literary) She achieved success by the sweat of her brow (= by working very hard).
A lot of sweat has gone into producing this.

clothes

sweats

[plural] (informal, especially North American English) a sweatsuit or sweatpants

I hung around the house all day in my sweats.

Word OriginOld English swāt (noun), swǣtan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zweet and German Schweiss, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin sudor.

Idioms

be/get in a sweat (about something)

to be/become anxious or frightened about something

blood, sweat and tears

very hard work; a lot of effort
- The only way to succeed is through old-fashioned blood, sweat and tears.

break sweat (British English)

(North American English break a sweat)

(informal) to use a lot of physical effort
- He hardly needed to break sweat to reach the final.
- She beat me without even breaking (a) sweat.

no sweat

(informal) used to tell somebody that something is not difficult or a problem when they thank you or ask you to do something
- ‘Thanks for everything.’ ‘Hey, no sweat!’
- Well, he could answer that one straight off, no sweat!

sweat

verb

/swet/

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they sweat	/swet/ /swet/
he / she / it sweats	/swets/ /swets/
past simple sweated	/ˈswetɪd/ /ˈswetɪd/
past participle sweated	/ˈswetɪd/ /ˈswetɪd/
-ing form sweating	/ˈswetɪŋ/ /ˈswetɪŋ/

Idioms Phrasal Verbs

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produce liquid on skin/surface

[intransitive, transitive] when you sweat, drops of liquid appear on the surface of your skin, for example when you are hot, ill or afraid synonym perspire

to sweat heavily
The palms of his hands began to sweat.
sweat something He was sweating buckets (= a lot).

Extra Examples

After two hours of digging he was sweating like a pig.
He awoke with a pounding heart, sweating with fear.
The heat was making us sweat.
We were sweating profusely from the exertion of moving the furniture.
You can sweat out toxins in the sauna.

Topics Health and Fitnessb2

Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadverb

freely
heavily
a lot
…

verb + sweat

begin to
start to
make somebody
…

preposition

from
with

phrases

sweat buckets
sweat bullets
sweat like a pig
…

See full entry

[intransitive] if something sweats, the liquid that is contained in it appears on its surface

The cheese was beginning to sweat.
The walls will continue to sweat until the plaster is completely dry.

work hard

[intransitive] sweat (over something) to work hard at something

Are you still sweating over that report?

worry

[intransitive] (informal) to worry or feel nervous about something

They really made me sweat during the interview.
Even though she’d made her decision, she let them sweat for another week.
Oh, let them sweat a bit.

heat food

[transitive, intransitive] sweat (something) (British English) if you sweat meat or vegetables or let them sweat, you heat them slowly with a little fat in a pan that is covered with a lid

Word OriginOld English swāt (noun), swǣtan (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch zweet and German Schweiss, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin sudor.

Idioms

don’t sweat it

(North American English, informal) used to tell somebody to stop worrying about something
- ‘I’m sure he’ll find out.’ ‘Don’t sweat it—no one’s going to tell him.’
- Don't sweat it — We'll be fine.

don’t sweat the small stuff

(North American English, informal) used to tell somebody not to worry about small details or things that are not important

slog/sweat/work your guts out

(informal) to work very hard to achieve something
- I slogged my guts out for the exam.
Topics Successc2

sweat blood

(informal) to work very hard
- I sweated blood to get everything ready in time.

sweat/slog/work your guts out

(informal) to work very hard to achieve something
- I sweated my guts out for the exam.
Topics Successc2