perspire
UK/pəˈspaɪə(ɹ)//pɚˈspaɪɹ/
perspire verb: to emit (sweat or perspiration) through the skin's pores.
Verb
perspire (third-person singular simple present perspires, present participle perspiring, simple past and past participle perspired)
- To emit (sweat or perspiration) through the skin's pores.
- I was perspiring freely after running the marathon.
- He lists forty reasons, mainly metaphorical, why Christ perspired blood, and his peroration takes twenty-two pages in print.2010, Susan C. Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Feeling
- Synonyms:
- sweat
- To be evacuated or excreted, or to exude, through the pores of the skin.
- A fluid perspires.
- To cause (someone) to sweat.
- Outside his window a long, humid summer, the first hot season of the third millennium, baked and perspired.2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 3
- We shook hands, he looked surprised to see me topless. I stimulated his mind. ¶ “Nice to meet you. My workout jogging perspired me a lot, so I removed the T-shirt.”2016, Pradip Chauhan, Love Stories, New Delhi: Educreation Publishing, →ISBN, page 48
- Synonyms:
- sweat
perspire meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada
perspire in Tamil
- to perspire
- கசி kaci, புழுங்கு puḻuṅku
perspire in Urdu
- عرق عرق ہونا, پسیجنا, پسینہ آنا, پسینہ نکلنا
perspire in Malayalam
- വിയർപ്പിക്കുക, വിയർക്കുക, പുറത്തുവിടുക, വമിക്കുക
perspire in Kannada
- ಬೆವರು, ಬೆವರು ಸುರಿಸು, ಬೆವರು ಹರಿ, ಬೆವರು ಇಳಿ
Examples of perspire in a sentence
- What!" was his oration, after which he resumed his seat and perspired profusely.
- Banks’ panama hat was in one hand, while the other drew a handkerchief across his perspiring brow.
- Banks’s panama hat was in one hand, while the other drew a handkerchief across his perspiring brow.
Synonyms of perspire
Forms of perspire
| third-person singular present | perspires |
|---|---|
| present participle | perspiring |
| past participle | perspired |
| past | perspired |
Origin of perspire
Borrowed from Middle French perspirer and its source Latin perspīrō (“to breathe everywhere, blow constantly”), from per (“through”) + spīrō (“to breathe”); see spirit.
Words formed from perspire
Words that rhyme with perspire
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- choir
- desire
- esquire
- inspire
- tire
- acquire
- admire
- dire
- empire
- respire
- sire
- transpire
- trier
- dryer
- friar
- fryer
- gyre
- lyre
- mire
- misfire
- require
- underfire
- aspire
- bemire
- buyer
- conspire
- inquire
- overfire
- quire
- tyre
- attire
- briar
- crier
- higher
- lier
- overtire
- Pryor
- pyre
- re-retire
- retrochoir
- rewire
- supplier
- suspire
- underwire
- unretire
- afire
- byre
- drier
Questions about perspire
- What does perspire mean?
- Perspire means to emit (sweat or perspiration) through the skin's pores.
- What is perspire in Tamil?
- Perspire in Tamil is கசி (kaci), புழுங்கு (puḻuṅku). See Perspire meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is perspire?
- Perspire is a verb.
- How do you pronounce perspire?
- Perspire is pronounced /pəˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of perspire?
- The past tense of perspire is perspired.
Words near perspire in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: perspire (page history and authors); கசி (Tamil) (page history and authors); perspire (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perspire (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); perspire (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-perspire.ogg.
Cite this entry: “perspire.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/perspire. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.