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Definition of sweat verb from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

sweat

verb
 
/swet/
 
/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

  1. [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
  2. [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.
  3. work hard

  4. [intransitive] sweat (over something) to work hard at something
    • Are you still sweating over that report?
  5. worry

  6. [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.
  7. heat food

  8. [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
  9. 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
  1. (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
  1. (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
  1. (informal) to work very hard to achieve something
    • I slogged my guts out for the exam.
    Topics Successc2
sweat blood
  1. (informal) to work very hard
    • I sweated blood to get everything ready in time.
sweat/slog/work your guts out
  1. (informal) to work very hard to achieve something
    • I sweated my guts out for the exam.
    Topics Successc2
See sweat in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee sweat in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
hat-trick
noun
 
 
From the Topic
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