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sweat out

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sweat something out

 

1. Lit. to get rid of something in one's body by sweating. I have a bit of a cold, and I am going to try to sweat it out. I took a steamy shower, trying to sweat out my cold.

2. Fig. to endure something unpleasant. It was an ordeal, but I sweated it out. I managed to sweat out the exam.

3. Fig. to endure suspense about something. She sweated the two-hour wait out until she heard the results of her bar exams. Karen sweated out the long wait peacefully.

See also: out, sweat

sweat out something

also sweat it out

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.

See also: out, sweat

sweat out

Endure or await something anxiously, as in He sweated out that last final exam, or I don't know if I made the team-I'm still sweating it out. This idiom, often expanded to sweat it out, was first recorded in 1876.

See also: out, sweat

sweat out

v. Slang

1. To endure something anxiously: I sweated out a three-hour history exam. We sweated the week out, wondering if the police would find us.

2. To await something anxiously: I've been sweating out my final grades all week. The patient was sweating the test results out in the waiting room.

3. To purge the body of some liquid by sweating: I just sweated all the water out that I drank today. They are in the sauna trying to sweat out the booze.

See also: out, sweat