sweat (redirected from breaking a sweat)

blood, sweat and tears

a lot of effort and suffering. This house is the result of 3 years' blood, sweat and tears.

See also: tear

by the sweat of your brow (literary)

if you earn the money that you use to live on by the sweat of your brow, you earn it yourself, by doing hard, often physical work. A decent, hard-working man, he supported his family by the sweat of his brow.

See also: brow

Don't sweat it! (American, informal)

something that you say in order to tell someone not to worry. Don't sweat it! We've got plenty of time to get there before the show starts.

See also: don't

Don't sweat the small stuff. (American, informal)

something that you say in order to tell someone not to worry about things that are not important. Don't sweat the small stuff, Sam. It's just office gossip - no one takes it seriously.

See also: don't, small, stuff

in a (cold) sweat

very frightened or anxious. I dreamed I'd left the tickets at home and woke up in a cold sweat. Just the thought of addressing all those people is enough to bring me out in a cold sweat. (= make me feel very anxious)

No sweat! (informal)

something that you say which means that you can do something easily. 'Do you think you'll be able to manage all those boxes yourself?' 'Yeah, no sweat!'

slog/sweat/work your guts out (informal)

to work very hard or to use a lot of effort to do something. You've got this wonderful man slogging his guts out for you, and all you do is criticize him! After working his guts out at the gym, he spoilt it all by going straight to the pub.

See also: gut, work

sweat blood

1. to work very hard. He says that writing does not come naturally to him and he sweats blood over every sentence. I sweat blood every week just to earn enough money to feed my family.

(mainly American, informal)

2. to feel very worried or anxious. We sweated blood as we waited for the police to phone, not knowing if Charlie was alive or dead.

See also: blood

sweat buckets (informal)

to sweat (= lose water through your skin) a lot. I was sweating buckets under my plastic rain jacket.

See also: bucket

sweat bullets (American, informal)

to be very worried or frightened. He was sweating bullets by the time the police had finished questioning him.

See also: bullet

sweat like a pig (informal)

to sweat (= have liquid coming out of your skin) a lot. I was so nervous, I was sweating like a pig.

See also: like, pig

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in a cold sweat

very frightened or worried. I dreamed I'd lost our plane tickets and woke up in a cold sweat.

See also: cold

no sweat

there is no problem or difficulty. We'll be back by six, no sweat, but if there's a problem, we'll call you.

sweat blood

to work very hard. Some students sweat blood over their dissertation, and others write it in a couple of months.

See also: blood

sweat out something

to anxiously wait for something. I sent in my application and now I have to sweat out the two months until I get an answer. We really had to sweat it out because it wasn't clear until the end that we would actually win.

work up a sweat

to put a lot of effort into something. The volunteers are working up a sweat to make sure everything is ready on time.

See also: work