Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Sweat?

\Sweat\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Sweat} or {Sweated} (Obs. {Swat}); p. pr. & vb. n. {Sweating}.] [OE. sweten, AS. sw[ae]tan, fr. sw[=a]t, n., sweat; akin to OFries. & OS. sw[=e]t, D. zweet, OHG. sweiz, G. schweiss, Icel. sviti, sveiti, Sw. svett, Dan. sved, L. sudor sweat, sudare to sweat, Gr. ?, ?, sweat, ? to sweat, Skr. sv[=e]da sweat, svid to sweat. [root]178. Cf. {Exude}, {Sudary}, {Sudorific}.] 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\, v. t. 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.] {To sweat coin}, to remove a portion of a piece of 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. --R. Cobden.
\Sweat\, n. [Cf. OE. swot, AS. sw[=a]t. See {Sweat}, v. i.] 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. {Sweat box} (Naut.), a small closet in which refractory men are confined. {Sweat glands} (Anat.), sudoriferous glands. See under {Sudoriferous}.