Forms: 4 suet, 4, (8 Sc.) sweet, 4–6 swete, suete, swott(e, 4–7 swet, (5 suett, squete), 5–7 Sc. sweit, (6 swetth, Sc. sueit), 6–7 sweate, 6– sweat. [ME. swet, swete, alteration of swot(e (see SWOTE) after swete, SWEAT v. First exemplified from northern texts, in which close and open e rhymed together as early as the fourteenth century; hence, on the one hand, swet: feit (OE. fét) and bete (OE. bétan), on the other, swet: gret (OE. gréat).]
I. † 1. The life-blood: in phr. to tine, leave, lose the sweat: to lose one’s life-blood, die. Obs.
The existence of this use is difficult to account for, since the sense of ‘blood’ which belonged to OE. swát (e.g., swát forlǽtan) did not survive in ME. SWOTE
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 2904. His frende schip wil y fle; Our on schal tine swete [rhyme To bete].
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 364. And alle þat lyuyes here-inne [to] lose þe swete.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, XIII. 32. Sum held on loft, sum tynt the suet [rhyme feit].
a. 1400[?]. Morte Arth., 2145. By that swyftely one swarthe þe swett es by-leuede. Ibid., 3360. Many swayne wiþ þe swynge has the swette leuede.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, III. 194. The Scottis on fute gert mony loiss the suete [rhyme feit].
1513. Douglas, Æneis, I. iii. 10. Quhar that the vailȝeand Hector lowsit the sweit [rhyme spreit] On Achillis speir. Ibid., VII. ix. 130. About hym fell down deid, and lost the sueit [rhyme spreit] Mony of the hyrd men.
II. 2. Moisture excreted in the form of drops through the pores of the skin, usually as a result of excessive heat or exertion, also of certain emotions, or of the operation of sudorific medicines; sensible perspiration.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xviii. (Egipciane), 305. For rednes tuk hyme sic abaysinge, Þat þe swet til his fete ran.
a. 1400–50. Wars Alex., 3790. All ware þai swollen of þe swete & sweltid on þe son.
1485. Caxton, St. Wenefr., 4. Wypyng her visage and clensynge it fro the duste and swette.
1508. Dunbar, Flyting, 202. Ane caprowsy barkit all with sweit.
1533. Bellenden, Livy, III. ix. (S.T.S.), I. 282. Als sone as his govne was dicht fra suete and duste of pow[d]er.
1667. Milton, P. L., VIII. 255. Soft on the flourie herb I found me laid In Balmie Sweat, which with his Beames the Sun Soon dri’d.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal, I. 253. A cold Sweat stands in drops on ev’ry part.
1798. Coleridge, Anc. Mar., IV. viii. The cold sweat melted from their limbs.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), V. 549. The matter of sweat and that of insensible perspiration are nearly the same.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. vii. His face, all spattered with dirt and lined with sweat.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 725. The sweat does not appear on the foot of which the nerve is cut.
b. In phr. the sweat of (one’s) brow († brows), face, etc., expressing toil (cf. 9): after Gen. iii. 19.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 51. Þei ben tauȝt to lyue in swet of here body bi comaundement of god.
1535. Coverdale, Gen. iii. 19. In the sweate of thy face shalt thou eate thy bred.
1553. T. Wilson, Rhet., Pref. (1580), A vij b. Who would trauaile and toile with the sweate of his browes?
1621. Brathwait, Nat. Embassie (1877), 136. Liue on the sweat of others browes.
1643. Trapp, Comm. Gen. ii. 15. It was after his fall laid upon him as a punishment, Gen. iii. 19. to eat his bread in the sweat of his nose.
[1718. Prior, Solomon, III. 362. E’er yet He earns his Bread, a-down his Brow, Inclin’d to Earth, his lab’ring Sweat must flow.]
1779. Earl Carlisle, in Jesse, Selwyn & Contemp. (1844), IV. 257. You are entitled to some happiness, for you have earned it with the sweat of your brow.
1816. Southey, Ess. (1832), I. 179. When he receives his daily wages for the sweat of his brow.
1886. ‘Sarah Tytler,’ Buried Diamonds, xxvi. A day laborer, who could … earn enough by the sweat of his brow to keep his wife and sick daughter from starving.
c. Bloody sweat: (a) that of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: see Luke xxii. 44.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 249 b. That moost paynfull agony of his blody swet.
1548–9. (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Litany. By thyne agony and bloudy sweate … Good lorde deliuer us.
[1701. Stanhope, Pious Breathings, VII. vii. (1704), 329. The Sweats of blood, which streamed from thy holy body.]
1819. Shelley, Cenci, I. i. 113. Tears bitterer than the bloody sweat of Christ.
transf. 1594. Kyd, Cornelia, I. 183. Warre … Which yet, to sack vs, toyles in bloody sweat T’enlarge the bounds of conquering Thessalie.
(b) Path.: see HÆMATIDROSIS.
1848. Dunglison, Med. Lex.
1876. [see HÆMATIDROSIS].
3. A condition or fit of sweating as a result of heat, exertion, or emotion; diaphoresis.
† Breathing sweat: see BREATHING ppl. a. d. Cold sweat, sweating accompanied by a feeling of cold, esp. as induced by fear or the like.
c. 1400. Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton), I. xxii. (1859), 25. Yf thou myghtest dayes two or thre Haue such a swete, it wold auayle the.
c. 1420. Avow. Arth., xlii. That heuy horse on him lay, He squonet in that squete.
c. 1420. ? Lydg., Assembly of Gods, 2044. My body all in swet began for to shake.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VII., 3 b. Sodenly a deadly and burnyng sweate inuaded their bodyes.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxv. (1887), 132. The rule is, change apparell after sweat.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 84. In Summer time this kind of lodging is vnpleasant, keeping a man in a continuall sweat from head to foote.
1706. E. Ward, Wooden World Diss. (1708), 25. They hear him cuff about the Bed and Bedpolls, and crying out in a cold Sweat.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 87. An Ague very violent; the Fit held me seven Hours, cold Fit, and hot, with faint Sweats after it.
1791. Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, iv. I turned all of a cold sweat in a minute.
1853. Kingsley, Hypatia, xiii. 164. His knees knocked together; a faint sweat seemed to melt every limb.
1864. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), III. 211. A heap of blankets that kept me in a sweat.
1905. Brit. Med. Jrnl., 25 Feb., 406. He had a shaking chill followed by a sweat.
† b. = SWEATING-SICKNESS. Obs.
a. 1517. in G. P. Scrope, Castle Combe (1852), 294. The wyche freer dyyd of the swet in my howse.
1551. Edw. VI., Lit. Rem. (Roxb.), II. 329. At this time cam the sweat into London, wich was more vehement then the old sweat.
1576. Newton, Lemnie’s Complex. (1633), 164. The English Sweat, the accident of which disease is sowning and grievous paine at the heart, joyned with a byting at the Stomacke.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., I. 5. That sair seiknes, named the sueit of Britannie.
a. 1614. D. Dyke, Myst. Self-deceiving (ed. 8), 26. Thus it was in that great Sweat in the time of King Edward.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 123. There was a fourth sweat between the years 1517 and 1551.
4. A fit of sweating caused for a specific purpose.
a. as a form of medicinal treatment or to reduce one’s weight. (In quot. 1779 used jocularly.)
1632. B. Jonson, Magn. Lady, III. iv. To clense his body, all the three high wayes; That is, by Sweat, Purge, and Phlebotomy.
1779. G. Keate, Sketches fr. Nat. (1790), II. 60. Paying my half-crown, I took a sweat, on one of the snug superannuated benches [in a hot ballroom].
1780. Cowper, Progr. Err., 221. He … Prepares for meals as jockies take a sweat.
1807. P. Gass, Jrnl., 219. Yesterday we gave him an Indian sweat, and he is some better to-day.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. v. 418/2. To hunt three days a-week, and shoot the other three, by way of a moderate sweat.
b. A ron given to a horse (often in a coat) as part of his training for a race.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4149/4. A 12 Stone Plate … will be run for … by Hunters … that … have [not] been kept in Sweats above 12 weeks before the day of Running.
1737. [see SWEAT v. 4 b].
1828. Sporting Mag., XXIII. 106. The management of a Flighty Horse in his exercise or sweat.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. I. vi. § 6. 335/1. The conclusion of the second preparation should be a severe sweat.
5. transf. Something resembling sweat; drops of moisture exuded from or deposited on the surface of a body; an exudation.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), I. 269. The snowe þat lieþ vppon Alpes þat brekeþ out on sweet.
1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 294. The swette of heauen, or as it were a certeyne spettyl of the starres.
1616. W. Browne, Brit. Past., II. ii. 2. The Mvses friend (gray-eyde Aurora) yet Held all the Meadowes in a cooling sweat.
a. 1631. Donne, Elegies, viii. 1. The sweet sweat of Roses in a Still.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., I. vii. (1686), 19. The sea was but the sweat of the Earth.
1712. Blackmore, Creation, II. 66. The fragrant Trees … Owe all their Spices to the Summer’s Heat, Their gummy Tears, and odoriferous Sweat.
1788. M. Cutler, in Life, etc. (1888), I. 428. A serious sweat over the mountain.
1847. L. Hunt, Jar Honey, ix. (1848), 116. The pleasant meadows sadly lay In chill and cooling sweats.
6. A process of sweating or being sweated; exudation, evaporation, or deposit of moisture, fermentation, partial fusion, etc., as practised in various industries.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 125. Let shock take sweate, least gofe take heate.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 115. Those [beans] that are to be kept are not to be thrashed till March, that they have had a thorough sweat in the Mow.
1765. Museum Rust., III. 225. The same barley … will not malt alike well at all times:… take it as soon as it is housed, it comes well, but whilst it is in its sweat, by no means.
1813. Vancouver, Agric. Devon, 240. After undergoing the first sweat, [they] should be ground, pressed, fermented, and casked a-part from each other.
1843. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), IV. 220. There will be found to have commenced a process of fermentation, technically called a ‘sweat.’
1876. Schultz, Leather Manuf., 23. The American process is called cold sweat.
† 7. A medicine for inducing sweat; a sudorific, diaphoretic. Obs.
1655. Culpepper, etc., Riverius, I. i. 3. The custom of taking Purges, Sweats, Diureticks, or provokers of Urine.
1681. Ashmole, Diary, 6 April, in Mem. (1717), 64. I took my usual Sweat, which made me well. Ibid., 2 Oct., 65. I took my Sweat for Prevention of the Gout.
a. 1776. R. James, Diss. Fevers (1778), 75. Thus much cannot be said with respect to any other vomit, any other purge, or any other sweat.
8. U.S. Name for a gambling game played with three dice. (Cf. sweat-cloth in 11.)
1894. Maskelyne, Sharps & Flats, 253. Sweat.—This is a game which is almost as charmingly artistic as its name.
III. 9. fig. Hard work; violent or strenuous exertion; labor, toil; pains, trouble. arch.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 921 (Cott.). Of erth þou sal, wit suete and suinc, Win þat þou sal ete and drinc.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, xxvii. (Machor), 1241. With swink & swet Hiddir þai come & trawall gret.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 259. Þer ben sum men þat lyven here in swete and bisynesse.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay, 93. Lat wsz notht liff of the sweyt and blwid of the pwir.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 94. The Oxe hath therefore stretch’d his yoake in vaine, The Ploughman lost his sweat. Ibid. (1610), Temp., II. i. 160. All things in common Nature should produce Without sweat or endeuour.
1642. Rogers, Naaman, 100. All well affected Christians would be loth to lose their labour and sweat, till they haue enjoyed the promise.
1751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Approach, The curve of equable Approach … has caused some sweat among analysts.
1821. Byron, Cain, I. i. Who bids The Earth yield nothing to us without sweat.
1879. J. D. Long, Æneid, IX. 598. They recognize the spoils the Volscians bring,… and, regained At such a sweat, their own insignia.
10. A state of impatience, irritation, anxiety, or the like, such as induces sweat; a flurry, hurry, fume. Chiefly Sc. and U.S.
1715. Pennecuik, Descr. Tweeddale, etc., 139. This put our Conjurer in a deep Sweet, who now had only one Shift left him, which was this, [etc.].
1753. Miss Collier, Art Torment., Gen. Rules, 216. You may talk in such a manner of the pleasure you enjoyed in their absence, as will put your husband in a sweat for you.
1884. ‘Mark Twain,’ Huck. Finn, xx. 200. He was in a sweat to get to the Indian Ocean right off.
1895. H. Watson, in Chap Book, III. 502. I passed the half-hour that ensued in a sweat of conjecture, as to what was to fall out.
IV. 11. attrib. and Comb., as sweat-drop, labor, -scraper, -secretion; spec. ‘exciting or relating to the secretion of sweat,’ as sweat apparatus, canal, center, coil, fiber, nerve; sweat-dried, -stained adjs.; also sweat-band, a band of leather or other substance forming a lining of a hat or cap for protection against the sweat of the head; sweat-bee, a name for the small bees of the family Andrenidæ; sweat-box, (a) a narrow cell in which a prisoner is confined (slang); (b) a box in which hides are sweated; (c) a large box in which figs are placed to undergo a ‘sweat’; sweat-cloth, a cloth or handkerchief used for wiping off sweat; a sudary; see also quot. 1872; sweat-cyst Path., a cyst resulting from some disorder of the sweat-glands; sweat-duct Anat., the duct of a sweat-gland, by which the sweat is conveyed to the surface of the skin; sweat flap, a leather flap in harness, for protecting the rider’s leg from the sweat of the horse; sweat-gland Anat., each of the numerous minute coiled tubular glands just beneath the skin which secrete sweat; sweat heat Gardening, the heat at which fermentation takes place; † sweat-hole, = sweat-pore; sweat-leather, (a) a leather sweat-band in a hat or cap; also sweat lining; (b) = sweat-flap; sweat-lodge, = SWEAT-HOUSE 1; sweat-orifice = sweat-pore; sweat-pit, † (a) the arm-pit exuding sweat (obs. nonce-use); (b) in Tanning, a pit in which hides are sweated, a sweating-pit; sweat-pore Anat., each of the pores of the skin formed by the openings of the sweat-ducts; sweat-rag (Australian slang), a pocket-handkerchief; sweat-rash Path., an eruption caused by obstruction of the sweat-pores; sweat-room, a room in which tobacco is sweated; sweat root, Polemonium reptans (Dunglison, Med. Lex., 1857); sweat-shop, U.S. a workshop in a dwelling-house, in which work is done under the sweating system (or, by extension, under any system of sub-contract); also attrib.; sweat-stock Tanning, a collective term for hides that are being or have been sweated (see SWEAT v. 13); † sweat-sweet a. nonce-wd., having a sweet exudation; sweat vesicle Path., = sweat-cyst; sweat-vessel Anat., = sweat-duct; sweat-weed, marsh mallow, Althæa officinalis (Billings, Med. Dict., 1890). See also SWEAT-HOUSE.
1883. F. T. Roberts, Handbk. Med. (ed. 5), 960. Affections of the *sweat-apparatus.
1891. Pall Mall G., 28 Sept., 2/3. An American chemist … threatens us with lead-poisoning from the *‘sweat-band.’
1894. U.S. Dept. Agric., Div. Veg. Physiol. & Path., Bulletin V. 79 (Cent. Dict. Suppl.). The *sweat bees of the genus Halictus and Andrena.
1888. Churchward, Blackbirding in S. Pacific, 28. This *sweat-box is a sort of cell in the lowest part of the ship, pitch dark, and hot as hell.
1890. Barrère & Leland, Slang Dict., Sweat-box, the cell where prisoners are confined on arrest previous to being brought up for examination before the magistrate.
1895. Pop. Sci. Monthly, XLVI. 345. When sympathetic visitors crowded around his sweatbox.
1900. Yearbk. U.S. Dept. Agric., 94. After the figs were dried they were placed in sweat boxes holding about 200 pounds each, where they were allowed to remain for two weeks, to pass through a sweat.
1890. Billings, Med. Dict., *Sweat canal, excretory duct of a sweat-gland. Ibid., *Sweat centre.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 200. The effect of this [accumulation of carbonic acid in the blood] being to stimulate the sweat centres.
1872. Schele de Vere, Americanisms, 329. The *sweat-cloth, a cloth marked with figures, and used by gamblers with dice.
1894. Athenæum, 24 Feb., 239/3. The appearance of the sweat-cloth is a very characteristic mark.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 741. An uninterrupted series of changes in the *sweat-coils was observed from the beginning up to the end of the disease.
1898. Hutchinson, Archives Surgery, IX. 160. My patient had been liable to unilateral sweating of the face…. The vesicles or little cysts … varied in size from pins’ heads to peas…. There could be little doubt that these were *sweat-cysts.
1885. B. Harte, Maruja, iii. As he groomed the *sweat-dried skin of the mustang.
1776. Mickle, trans. Camoens’ Lusiad, 304. Fell the hot *sweat-drops as he champt the rein.
1817. Byron, Mazeppa, xi. And my cold sweat-drops fell like rain Upon the courser’s bristling mane.
1881. Huxley, Elem. Physiol., v. (new ed.), 114. Cells lining the *sweat duct.
1908. Animal Managem., 182. The *sweat flap of the girth.
1845. Todd & Bowman, Phys. Anat., I. 423. The *sweat-glands exist under almost every part of the cutaneous surface.
1843. Florist’s Jrnl. (1846), IV. 225. A *‘sweat heat’ of from 85° to 95° temperature.
14[?]. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, 679/16. Hic porus, a *swetholle.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, F j b. [Veronica water] is good to be dronke for the flyenge sore, for it openeth the swete holes.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 368. Nature striveth to thrust out her venemous enemy … by the sweatholes.
a. 1674. Traherne, Chr. Ethics (1675), 261. All the *sweat labour of the martyrs, all the persecutions and endeavours of the apostles.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. s.v. Sweat Rolling Machine, The *sweat-leather lining of hats. Ibid., Sweat Sewing Machine, a machine for sewing the *sweat lining in hats.
1887. Amer. Soc. Psych. Research, Dec., 141. When persons are taking a bath in the *sweat-lodge.
1897. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., III. 308. The *sweat-nerves leave the spinal cord by the anterior roots.
1708. T. Ward, Terræ-filius, v. 27. The Effluvia that arises from her *Sweat-Pits.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 323. Eight stone sweat-pits, with pointed arches and flues.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 742. The obstruction at the orifice of the *sweat-pore.
1902. H. Lawson, Children of Bush, 9. He wiped his face, neck, and forehead with a big speckled *‘sweat-rag.’
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 586. ‘Red gum,’ ‘teething rash,’ usually regarded as a *sweat-rash.
1908. Animal Managem., 60. *Sweat scrapers are long flexible blades of smooth metal.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 666. Over markedly ichthyotic parts, *sweat-secretion is usually diminished.
1895. Westm. Gaz., 2 Nov., 2/3. All but fifteen of the 385 wholesale clothing manufacturers in New York have their goods made in *‘sweat shops.’
1900. F. H. Stoddard, Evol. Eng. Novel, 172. The contract system—the familiar sweat-shop system of more modern days.
1906. Olive C. Malvery, Soul Market, xi. 185. Under the ‘Sweat-shop’ Law of the State of New York, the manufacture of articles of wearing apparel is now specifically forbidden in any tenement house without a license.
1882. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 384/1. Among non-acid tanners the plumping of *sweat stock in which there is no lime is secured in the weak acid liquors of the colouring and handling pits.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. vi. 148. The *sweat-sweet Civit.
1901. Osler, Princ. & Pract. Med., i. (ed. 4), 17. Cases that have not been carefully sponged may shew *sweat vesicles.
1682. T. Gibson, Anat. (1697), 12. These *Sweat-vessels arise from the glands that the skin is every where beset with.
