sweat

/swɛt/

sweat 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

sweat (usually uncountable, plural sweats)

(usually) 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.

Synonyms:

perspiration
(usually) The state of one who is sweating; diaphoresis.
- Just thinking about the interview tomorrow puts me into a nervous sweat.
(figuratively, usually) Hard work; toil.
(figuratively, usually) Moisture issuing from any substance.
- The Muses' friend (grey-eyed Aurora) yet
  Held all the meadows in a cooling sweat,
  The milk-white gossamers not upwards snow'd,
  Nor was the sharp and useful-steering goad1613, William Browne, Britannia's Pastorals
- the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC
(usually) A short run by a racehorse as a form of exercise.
- A Horſe that gains Fleſh in hard Exerciſe, should be ſweated at leaſt twice in ten Days; and he ſhould run near five Miles in Puſhes, that the Sweat may have Time to diſcharge. Those Horſes which are ſweat without Covering, or with a very thin one, should run a long Sweat, as wel call it, and ſtand...1740, Henry Bracken, Farriery improv'd
- There are some horses so very delicate, and have to run such short lengths, that they may not require a sweat during the whole time of their being in training.1840, Richard Darvill, A Treatise on the Care, Treatment, and Training of the English Race Horse
(historical, usually) The sweating sickness.
- When the sweat comes back this summer, 1528, people say, as they did last year, that you won't get it if you don't think about it.2009, Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall, Fourth Estate, published 2010, page 131
- […]who both died within one houre of the sweat at Cambridge1577, Raphaell Holinshed, The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, →OCLC
(UK, slang, usually, especially WWI) A soldier (especially one who is old or experienced).
(slang, usually) An extremely or excessively competitive player.
- Casuals believe that sweats are ruining Fortnite. Sweats think that casuals just need to get better at the game. It's a never-ending debate that will never end, despite what anyone tries to say, but it's worth taking a look at regardless.2021 October 13, Zachary Roberts, “How exactly are 'sweats' ruining Fortnite? Addressing the never ending try-hards vs casual debate”, in Sportskeeda
Synonyms:

tryhard

Verb

sweat (third-person singular simple present sweats, present participle sweating, simple past sweated or sweat, past participle sweated or sweat or (archaic) sweaten)

(intransitive) To emit sweat.

Synonyms:

perspire
(transitive) To cause to excrete moisture through skin.
1. (transitive) To cause to perspire.
  - His physicians attempted to sweat him by most powerful sudorifics.
(informal, intransitive) To work hard.
- I've been sweating over my essay all day.
Synonyms:

slave, slog
1. (informal, intransitive) To be extremely dedicated to winning a game; to play competitively.
  - There's no way we can win. These guys are sweating so hard.
  - With skill-based matchmaking, he wrote, "you have to sweat 100 percent of the time." They contend their audiences want to see them pull off amazing victories, not struggle endlessly against other top players.2022 May 27, Ethan Davison, “Video game developers want fair online games. Some players really don’t.”, in The Washington Post
(informal, transitive) To extract money, labour, etc. from, by exaction or oppression.
- to sweat a spendthrift
- to sweat labourers
Synonyms:

bleed
(informal, intransitive) To worry.

Synonyms:

fret, worry
(informal, transitive) To worry about (something).
- Don't sweat it!
- to sweat the small stuff
(transitive) To emit, in the manner of sweat.
- to sweat blood
- With exercise she sweat ill humors out.1700, [John] Dryden, “The Cock and the Fox: Or, The Tale of the Nun’s Priest, from Chaucer”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC
(intransitive) To emit moisture.
- The cheese will start sweating if you don't refrigerate it.
(intransitive) To have drops of water form on (something's surface) due to moisture condensation.
- Coasters are a good way to stop a sweating glass from damaging your table.
(intransitive) To solder (a pipe joint) together.
(slang, transitive) To stress out, to put under pressure.
- Stop sweatin' me!
- But I'ma smoke 'em now and not next time / Smoke any motherfucker that sweats me1988, “Fuck tha Police”, performed by N.W.A
(intransitive, transitive) To cook slowly at low heat, in shallow oil and without browning, to reduce moisture content.
- Sweating is a generally a quiet operation; if the food is whispering, or worse, hissing, the moisture is probably evaporating too rapidly2002, Judy Rodgers, The Zuni Cafe Cookbook
- Sweat the carrots, onion, celery, leeks, and cabbage in the butter until translucent not allowing them to color in any way.2007, Patty Elsberry, Matt Bolus, Simply Vanilla: Recipes for Everyday Use, page 93

Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings

(archaic, transitive) To remove a portion of (a 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.1879, Richard Cobden, On the Probable Fall in the Value of Gold (originally by Michel Chevalier)
(intransitive) To suffer a penalty; to smart for one's misdeeds.
(transitive) To take a racehorse for a short exercise run.
- A Horſe that gains Fleſh in hard Exerciſe, should be ſweated at leaſt twice in ten Days; and he ſhould run near five Miles in Puſhes, that the Sweat may have Time to diſcharge. Those Horſes which are ſweat without Covering, or with a very thin one, should run a long Sweat, as wel call it, and ſtand...1740, Henry Bracken, Farriery improv'd

Proper noun capitalized: Sweat

Sweat (plural Sweats)

A surname.

sweat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

sweat in Hindi

fluid that exits the body through pores: पसीना pasīnā
to emit sweat: पसीजना pasījnā

sweat in Tamil

fluid that exits the body through pores: வேர்வை vērvai, வியர்வை viyarvai
informal: to work hard: வியர்க்க viyarkka
to emit sweat: வியர் viyar
informal: to worry: கவலைப்படு kavalaippaṭu

sweat in Marathi

fluid that exits the body through pores: घाम ghām

sweat in Urdu

fluid that exits the body through pores: پَسِینَہ pasīna, عَرَق 'araq, عَرْق 'arq
to emit sweat: پسینه آنا pasīna ānā

More languagesFewer languages

sweat in Bengali: ঘাম gham
sweat in Telugu: చెమట cemaṭa, స్వేదం svēdaṁ
sweat in Malayalam: വിയർപ്പ് viyaṟppŭ, വിയർക്കുക viyaṟkkuka, വിഷമിക്കുക viṣamikkuka
sweat in Kannada: ಬೆವರು bevaru
sweat in Punjabi: ਪਸੀਨਾ pasīnā
sweat in Gujarati: પરસેવો parsevo
sweat in Odia: ଝାଳ jhāḷa
sweat in Sanskrit: स्वेद sveda, स्वेदते svedate, स्विद्य॑ति svídyati
sweat in Sinhala: දහඩිය dahaḍiya
sweat in Assamese: ঘাম gham, ঘামা ghama, ঘমা ghoma
sweat in Nepali: पसिना pasinā
sweat in Pashto: خولې xwalé
sweat in Tagalog: pawis, magpawis
sweat in Arabic: عَرَق ʕaraq, عرق ʕaraʔ, عَرِقَ ʕariqa, عِرِق ʕirig
sweat in Malay: peluh, keringat, berkeringat, berpeluh
sweat in Indonesian: keringat, berkeringat, berpeluh
sweat in Persian: عَرَق araq, خْوَی xway, خُویْ xūy, خویْ xoy
sweat in Thai: เหงื่อ ngʉ̀ʉa, เหงื่อออก ngʉ̀ʉa-ɔ̀ɔk
sweat in Vietnamese: mồ hôi, chảy mồ hôi, ra mồ hôi, đổ mồ hôi
sweat in Myanmar: ချွေး hkywe:, ချွေးထွက် hkywe:htwak

Examples of sweat in a sentence

A Horſe that gains Fleſh in hard Exerciſe, should be ſweated at leaſt twice in ten Days; and he ſhould run near five Miles in Puſhes, that the Sweat may have Time to diſcharge.1740, Henry Bracken, Farriery improv'd:
The last overhaul we will do on it is at 24 years, but we tend to sweat the asset at Network Rail and try and save a bit of money, so I've estimated 32 years."2022 September 7, Tom Allett, “At the cutting edge of NR's track work”, in RAIL, number 965, page 40:
There are few matters studio executives sweat more than maintaining their franchises.2010 December 5, Brooks Barnes, “Studios battle to save Narnia”, in The New York Times:
I was sipping a third, but I had no kind of buzz on; apparently I had sweat the beer out as rapidly as I drank it.1980, Stephen King, The Mist, Viking Press:

All 40 example sentences with sweat

Synonyms of sweat

All synonyms of sweat

Forms of sweat

Noun
plural	sweats
Verb
third-person singular present	sweats
present participle	sweating
past	sweated
past	sweat
past participle	sweated
past participle	sweat
past participle (archaic)	sweaten
Proper noun
plural	Sweats

Past tense of sweat: sweated or sweat

Plural of sweat: sweats

Origin of sweat

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.

Words formed from sweat

Words that rhyme with sweat

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sweat

What does sweat mean?: Sweat means 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.
What is sweat in Hindi?: Sweat in Hindi is पसीना (pasīnā), पसीजना (pasījnā). See Sweat meaning in Hindi.
How do you use sweat in a sentence?: A Horſe that gains Fleſh in hard Exerciſe, should be ſweated at leaſt twice in ten Days; and he ſhould run near five Miles in Puſhes, that the Sweat may have Time to diſcharge.
What part of speech is sweat?: Sweat can be a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce sweat?: Sweat is pronounced /swɛt/.
What is the plural of sweat?: The plural of sweat is sweats.

Words near sweat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: sweat (page history and authors); Sweat (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sweat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sweat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sweat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.