Crossword clues for perspire
perspire
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Perspire \Per*spire"\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Perspired; p. pr. & vb. n. Perspiring.] [L. perspirare to breathe through; per + spirare. See Per-, and Spirit.]
(Physiol.) To excrete matter through the skin; esp., to excrete fluids through the pores of the skin; to sweat.
To be evacuated or excreted, or to exude, through the pores of the skin; as, a fluid perspires.
Perspire \Per*spire"\, v. t. To emit or evacuate through the pores of the skin; to sweat; to excrete through pores.
Firs . . . perspire a fine balsam of turpentine.
--Smollett.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1640s, "to evaporate through the pores," a back-formation from perspiration and in part from Latin perspirare "to breathe, to blow constantly" (see perspiration). Meaning "to sweat" is a polite usage attested from 1725. Medical men tried to maintain a distinction between "sensible" (sweat) and "insensible" perspiration:\n[I]t is sufficient for common use to observe, that perspiration is that insensible discharge of vapour from the whole surface of the body and the lungs which is constantly going on in a healthy state; that it is always natural and always salutary; that sweat, on the contrary, is an evacuation, which never appears without some uncommon effort, or some disease to the system, that it weakens and relaxes, and is so far from coinciding with perspiration, that it obstructs and checks it. [Charles White, "A Treatise on the Management of Pregnant and Lying-in Women," London, 1791]\nRelated: Perspired; perspiring.
Wiktionary
vb. 1 (context intransitive English) To emit sweat or perspiration through the skin's pores. 2 (context intransitive English) To be evacuated or excreted, or to exude, through the pores of the skin.
WordNet
Wikipedia
- Redirect Perspiration
Usage examples of "perspire".
She plunged into dark alleys, and, all perspiring, reached the bottom of the Rue Nationale, near the fountain that stands there.
I sat with many a fine cigar on the verandah of my bungalow in Madras, and though one of the boys was always there to fan the punkah, I would perspire on my forehead and it was just part of smoking a good cigar out in India.
And Colonel Starbottle knew this, as, perspiring, florid, and panting, he rebuttoned the lower buttons of his blue frock-coat, which had become loosed in an oratorical spasm, and readjusted his old-fashioned, spotless shirt frill above it as he strutted from the court-room amidst the handshakings and acclamations of his friends.
That afternoon the four perspiring Japanese porters put down the iron-banded chest watched by three Bakufu officials of no import, Sir William, interpreters, an officer from the army accounting department, the Legation shroff, a Chinese, and Vargas, to check him.
Doc Savage was speaking, perspiring a little with the effort of making the ventriloquial voice loud enough to reach the entire crowd.
Rostow, Mac, Bundy and Hot Stick were standing by with their weapons pointed at the congregation of Aguaruna as casually as it could be done without being rude, trying to provide comfort for Felix, who crouched next to the Stele, perspiring heavily over a soldering iron, a converter and a picnic cooler full of two dozen size-D batteries.
The first thing he noticed was that he was perspiring, and then he heard a hissing growing louder under his feet, and saw a lot of little bubblesvery little bubbles they wererushing upward like a fan through the water outside.
By the time Goofball and Romeo entered, she was stirring desperately away, flushed and perspiring as though she had been at it for some time.
Each of the black blocks was five thousand or more men, clustering right now under ground sheets out in the drizzle, perspiring from heat and nerves, not a one of them with the vantage point of Luis, who looked down on the sheer weight of the red blocks across from their force, the Reds packed in, waiting, ready.
Vaska Shmakov greeted me with a friendly shout, drawing his sleeve across his perspiring face after draining a messtin of hot water.
Get your despicable, perspiring, bloated body away from this place before I get in my motorcar and run you down where you stand.
The sight of these bearded peasants at work on the battlefield, with their queer, clumsy boots and perspiring necks, and their shirts opening from the left toward the middle, unfastened, exposing their sunburned collarbones, impressed Pierre more strongly with the solemnity and importance of the moment than anything he had yet seen or heard.
And thou, O sun, who even now must be making haste to saddle thy steeds, and climb the heavens, and see my lady, I pray thee when thou seest her to greet her on my behalf, but be thou certain not to kiss her face when thou seest and greetest her, for then I shall be more envious of thee than thou wert of that fleet ingrate who madest thee to perspire and race across the plains of Thessaly or along the banks of the Peneus, for I do not remember precisely where thou rannest then so envious and enamored.
It enveloped him, made it difficult to breathe, and he perspired freely.
He had heavy arms, was in need of a shave, and perspired freely in his white coat.