Word.ws English Dictionary

sweat the small stuff

sweat the small stuff verb: to worry about petty issues or insignificant matters.

Verb

sweat the small stuff (third-person singular simple present sweats the small stuff, present participle sweating the small stuff, simple past and past participle sweated the small stuff or sweat the small stuff)

  1. (idiomatic, informal) To worry about petty issues or insignificant matters.
    • The prefrontal cortex is the other character in those internal battles that go on in your life. [...] The higher being who wishes you’d stop sweating the small stuff.2017 April 20, Tim Urban, “Neuralink and the Brain’s Magical Future”, in Wait But Why, retrieved 21 Apr 2017

Forms of sweat the small stuff

third-person singular presentsweats the small stuff
present participlesweating the small stuff
past participlesweated the small stuff
pastsweated the small stuff
past participlesweat the small stuff
pastsweat the small stuff

Origin of sweat the small stuff

From the idea that small stuff, or small-diameter cordage used in sailing, should not be tightened by sweating, i. e. pulling the rope perpendicular to its length, as one does to pull large-diameter rope tight.

Questions about sweat the small stuff

What does sweat the small stuff mean?
Sweat the small stuff means to worry about petty issues or insignificant matters.
What part of speech is sweat the small stuff?
Sweat the small stuff is a verb.
What is the past tense of sweat the small stuff?
The past tense of sweat the small stuff is sweated the small stuff.

Words near sweat the small stuff in the dictionary

  1. sweat shirts
  2. sweat shop
  3. sweat shops
  4. sweat sock
  5. sweat socks
  6. sweat the small stuff
  7. sweat trousers
  8. sweat-cloth
  9. sweat-dappled
  10. sweat-house
  11. sweat-houses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sweat the small stuff (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-sweat the small stuff.ogg.

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