verb [I] to excrete a salty colourless liquid through the skin because you are hot, ill or frightened
It was so hot when we arrived in Tripoli that we started to sweat as soon as we got off the plane.
The prisoners were sweating with fear.
INFORMAL I was so afraid, I was sweating like a pig (=sweating a lot).
FIGURATIVE INFORMAL It seemed that the authorities had delayed the news just to make us sweat (=keep us waiting in a state of anxiety). [I]
If something sweats, it has drops of liquid on the outside.
Don't put the cheese in a plastic bag - it'll sweat.
The walls in older houses sometimes sweat with damp.
(informal) To sweat blood or sweat your guts out is to make a great effort.
We sweated blood to get the work finished on time.
(American informal) If you sweat bullets, you sweat a lot.
The combination of hard physical work and high temperatures soon had us sweating bullets.
If you sweat it out, you are involved in hard physical exercise.
I like to sweat it out in the gym for a couple of hours every day.
To sweat it out is also to suffer while you wait for an unpleasant situation to end.
My exams finish next week then I'll be sweating it out for a month waiting for the results.
To sweat over a hot piece of equipment is to work hard using it.
I've been sweating over a hot stove all morning.
I spent all day sweating over a hot computer.
sweat, formal perspiration
noun [U] The dancers were dripping/pouring with sweat (=the salty colourless liquid that you excrete through your skin) after a morning's rehearsal.
By the time we'd climbed to the top of the hill, we were covered in sweat.
She wiped the beads (=drops) of sweat from her forehead.
FIGURATIVE INFORMAL He tends to get in a sweat (=to worry) about flying.
The cathedral was built by human toil and sweat (=effort).
(informal) If you say that something is no sweat, you mean that it will not be difficult or cause problems.
"Can you fix my car for me?" "No sweat!"
A sweat band is a thin strip of material that someone doing sport or exercise wears round their head to stop sweat going into their eyes or wears round their wrists to stop sweat going onto their hands.
The sweat glands are the small organs under the skin which produce sweat.
Sweat suit is a tracksuit.
sweaty
adjective a sweaty face (=one covered in sweat)
sweaty clothes (=those full of and smelling of sweat)
We spent the evening in a sweaty (=that causes you to sweat) pub.