Sweat | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Swĕat, n.

noun

n. [A-S. swât, O. Sax. suet, O. Fries. swet, L. Ger. sweet, D. zweet, Icel. sveiti, Sw. svett, Dan. sved, O. H. Ger. sweiz, N. H. Ger. schweiz, allied to Skr. svēdas, Lat. sudor, Gr. ἱδρώς.]

Sense 1. The fluid or sensible moisture which is excreted from the skin of an animal, more commonly that which is produced by hard work, mental excitement, bodily suffering, or medicine.

In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. Gen. iii. 19.

Sense 2. The state of one who sweats; hence, labor; toil; drudgery. Shak.

Sense 3. Moisture issuing from any substance; as, the sweat of hay or grain in a mow or stack.

Swĕat, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. [imp. & p. p. SWEAT, or SWEATED (SWOT is obsolete); p. pr. & vb. n. SWEATING.] [A-S. swēatan, L. Ger. sweten, D. zweten, Icel. sveita, Sw. swetta, Dan. svede, O. H. Ger. suizzen, N. H. Ger. schwitzen, Skr. svid, Lat. sudare.]

Sense 1. To excrete sensible moisture from the skin.

Sense 2. To toil; to labor; to drudge.

He'd have the poets sweat. Waller.

Sense 3. To emit moisture, as green plants in a heap.

Swĕat, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. 1. To cause to excrete moisture from the skin; as, his physicians attempted to sweat him by the most powerful sudorifics. 2. To emit or suffer to flow from the pores; to exude.

For him the rich Arabia sweats her gums. Dryden.

To sweat coin, to remove a portion of a piece of coin, as by shaking it in a bag, so that the friction wears off some of the metal, and so that the diminution of the value is not readily perceived.

The only use of it [money] which is interdicted is to put it in circulation again after having diminished its weight by “sweating,” or otherwise, because the quantity of metal which it contains is no longer consistent with its impression. Cobden.