sweat
Definitions
General English
General Science
- noun a salty liquid secreted by glands onto the skin’s surface as a means of reducing body heat
- noun drops of liquid generated on a surface, usually by condensation of water vapour from the air
- verb to produce a clear salty liquid on the surface of the skin as a result of being hot or as a result of strenuous activity, fear, anxiety, or illness
Food
- noun a salty liquid produced by the sweat glands to cool the body as the liquid evaporates from the skin
- verb to cook food in a pan in its own juices with a small amount of fat or oil until tender
Medical
- verb to produce moisture through the sweat glands and onto the skin
Slang
- noun a brutish, unsophisticated individual. The term sometimes denotes someone engaged in menial tasks and was heard in working-class speech in the 1990s.
- verb to put pressure on (someone)
Sports
- noun a run that a horse has before a race, as exercise
Travel
- verb to cook something in a pan in its own juices with a small amount of fat or oil until tender
Origin & History of “sweat”
Sweat is part of a widespread family of ‘sweat’-words that goes back ultimately to the prehistoric Indo-European base *sweid-, *swoid-. other members include Greek hidrṓs, Latin sūdor (source of English exude (16th c.)), Welsh chwys, Latvian sviēdri, and Sanskrit svḗdas. Amongst its Germanic descendants was *swaitjan, which evolved into German schweissen ‘weld’, Dutch zweeten ‘sweat’, and English sweat. Swot (19th c.) originated as a dialectal variant of sweat.
