[f. SWEAT v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb SWEAT.
1. Emission of sweat from the pores of the skin; the process of inducing this, esp. in preparing a man for athletic contests or a horse for a race.
c. 1205. Lay., 17763. Wreoð nu wel þene king Þæt he ligge a swæting.
c. 1400. trans. Secr. Secr., Gov. Lordsh., 73. Vse of bathynge and swetynge.
c. 1440. York Myst., xl. 40. Þat swettyng was swemyed for swetyng.
1563. T. Gale, Antidot., II. 23. The patyente maye not goe abroade after hys swettynge.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1590), 21. I would we had an Ostler to giue them a turne or two till their sweating were done.
1617. Moryson, Itin., III. 60. If he … can find … by the swetting of the horse, that hee hath ridden an extraordinary pace.
1639. Mayne, City Match, V. iii. You were better match a ruind Bawd; One ten times cured by sweating, and the Tub.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc., 272. Sweating often thickens the Blood.
1848. Dunglison, Med. Lex. (ed. 7), Sweating of blood.
1856. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, II. I. ix. § 3. 351/1. Sweating will seldom be necessary until the spring.
a. 1883. Fagge, Princ. Med. (1886), II. 531. One of the most striking symptoms of acute rheumatism … is sweating.
† b. = SWEATING-SICKNESS, Obs.
a. 1585. Montgomerie, Flyting, 317. The powlings, the palsay, with pockes like pees, The swerfe and the sweiting.
2. Toiling, laboring, severe exertion.
c. 1430. Pilgr. Lyf Manhode, III. xix. (1869), 145. j gripe … that that oothere haven laboured and conquered with here swetinge.
1551. Robinson, trans. More’s Utopia, II. (1895), 281. Hollye set vpon the dessire of the lyffe to come; by watchynge and sweatynge hoping shortely to obtaine it.
1596. Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., II. 146. Sik heit, in sueiting, trauel, and fechteng.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., I. xxxviii. You search farre distant worlds with needlesse sweating.
1764. Foote, Mayor of G., II. Wks. 1799, I. 186. After all his … sweatings, his swimmings; must his dear blood be spilt by a broker!
b. spec. (a) The practice of doing piece-work overtime; (b) the practice of exacting hard work from employees for low wages, esp. under a middleman by sub-contract. (See SWEAT v. 5 c, 6 b.)
1843. Mech. Mag., XXXIX. 443. All owing to their buying ready-made large shoes, and not having patience to let a good working tradesman make them (leaving out the Moses and Son principle of sweating).
1850. Kingsley, Alton Locke, x. When this piece-work and sweating first came in.
1888. Times, 20 Sept., 7/3. Mr. Booth calls sweating the advantage that may be taken of unskilled and unorganised labour under the contract system.
3. The action or process of exuding moisture, or of condensing it in drops on the surface (also concr.); also, any one of various processes likened to emission of sweat, as of evaporation, fermentation, partial fusion, etc., or the action of exposing something to such process. (See SWEAT v. 10 b, c, 13, 17.)
1545. Elyot, Aspergines parietum, sweatynge of stone walles.
1575–6. Reg. Privy Council Scot., II. 512. Gold and silver that salbe recoverit be sweting, melting, affynning or utherwayis.
1699. L. Meager, Art of Gardening, 74. Well line the Bottom or Sides of the [Fruit-] Sieves with Fern … to keep them from brusing, and likewise to prevent their sweating.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., x. 205. The Bees will hover about the Doors in cold Evenings, and Mornings, there will be a moisture or sweating upon the Stool.
1764. Museum Rust., III. li. 225. Yet after it [sc. barley] has done sweating, it comes well again.
1808. Holland, Agric. Cheshire, xiii. 283. If the fermentation, or sweating, has been imperfect … the cheese will be liable to become hove.
1826. Art Brewing (ed. 2), 78. After it [sc. malt] is getting out of its first sweating, they take it from the kiln.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. 497. A moderate degree of fermentation, or sweating of hay in the stack.
1834. Penny Cycl., II. 191/2. The best mode [of preserving apples] is to allow the fruits … to lie till their superfluous moisture has evaporated, which is what is technically called sweating.
1845. G. Dodd, Brit. Manuf., Ser. V. 133 (Tobacco). Sweating … is in its nature a slight degree of fermentation.
1876. Bristowe, The. & Pract. Med. (1878), 835. The sweating of this fluid through the walls of the smaller arteries.
1882. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XIV. 383/2. In America the sweating is performed cold; the hides are hung up wet in a damp underground cellar.
b. (See quot.)
1909. Hawkins’ Mech. Dict., Sweating On, the soldering of metallic surfaces without the aid of a copper bit…. Sweating on is often employed for the temporary holding together of work which has to be turned or shaped, and which could not be so conveniently held by other methods.
4. The practice of lightening gold coins by friction.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Sweating, a mode of diminishing the gold coin, practised chiefly by the Jews, who corrode it with aqua regia.
1878. F. A. Walker, Money, x. 195. Whether the loss of the precious metal in the coin results from an external abrasion … or through the clipping or sweating of the coin.
5. The practices of the ruffians called ‘sweaters’ in the 18th century.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulgar T., Sweating,… a diversion practised by the bloods of the last century who stiled themselves Mohocks.
6. attrib., as sweating process; in sense 1, = used to induce sweating or profuse perspiration, as sweating-bath, -bench, -closet, -coop, -draught, oil, -tub (cf. TUB sb. 1 b); characterized by sweating, as sweating stage (in ague or other febrile disease); in sense 2 b, as sweating den, shop, system; in sense 3 b, as sweating socket; sweating-bag, a bag used by thieves for sweating gold coins; sweating-band = sweat-band (see SWEAT sb. 11); † sweating-cloth = sweat-cloth (see SWEAT sb. 11); sweating club, a club of the ruffians called ‘sweaters’ in the 18th century; sweating-fever = SWEATING-SICKNESS; sweating-furnace (see quot.); sweating-iron = sweat-scraper (see SWEAT sb. 11); sweating-lodge = SWEAT-HOUSE; sweating-pit, in Tanning, a pit in which hides are sweated; sweating-place, (a) a building or chamber in which sweating-baths are taken; (b) an establishment in which work-people are sweated (see sense 2 b); sweating plant, Eupatorium perfoliatum (Dunglison, Med. Lex., 1848); sweating-room, (a) a room in which persons are sweated, as in a Turkish bath; (b) a room in which cheeses are ‘sweated’ or deprived of superfluous moisture; sweating-stock, in Tanning = sweat-stock (see SWEAT sb. 11). See also SWEATING-HOUSE, -SICKNESS.
1617. Moryson, Itin., I. 117. Leander thinkes this place to haue been a *sweating bath.
1799. Tooke, View Russian Emp., III. iii. II. 262. The russian baths are … sweating-baths. Ibid., 261. After remaining awhile they come down from the *sweating-bench, and wash their body with warm or cold water.
1648. Herrick, Hesper., Panegerik, 121. To build A *Sweating-Closset, or to anoint the silke-soft-skin, or bath in Asses’ milke.
1585. Higins, Junius’ Nomencl., 172/2. Sudarium … a *sweating cloth: a towell.
1825. R. Chambers, Tradit. Edinb., II. 260. The *Sweating Club flourished [in Edinburgh] about the middle of the last century.
1751. J. Bartram, Observ. Trav. Pennsylv., etc., 33. I have seen many of these places in my travels. They differ from their *sweating coops, in that they are often far from water, and have a stake by the cage.
1894. Dolling, in C. E. Osborne, Father Dolling (1903), xiii. The *sweating dens of financiers.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), II. 116. Ephemera Sudatoria. *Sweating Fever.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Sweating-furnace (Metallurgy), a liquation furnace of peculiar construction, in which a matte of copper and argentiferous lead is heated to deprive the copper of the metals combined therewith.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., *Sweating-iron, in the manege, is a piece of a scythe about a foot long…. When a horse is very hot, and the grooms have a mind to lessen the sweat,… they take this knife or iron … and gently run the cutting edge along the horse’s skin … with intent to scrape off the sweat.
1831. Youatt, Horse, xxii. 387. An infusion of two ounces of flies … when sufficiently lowered with common oil,… is called a *sweating oil.
1830. Narrative John Tanner, 332. Moh-to-te-sun—The *sweating lodge.
1838. Mrs. Jameson, Winter Studies & Summer Rambles in Canada, III. 115. After he had been in the sweating lodge and bath several times, he ordered him to lie down on a clean mat in a little lodge.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Sudadero, a *sweating place.
1850. Kingsley, Cheap Clothes, 11. In some sweating places, there is an old coat kept called a ‘reliever,’ and this is borrowed by such men as have none of their own to go out in.
1849. Claridge, Cold Water Cure, 7. The wet sheet … has gradually superseded the *sweating process.
1852. Morfit, Tanning & Currying (1853), 171. All methods of fermentation [for the depilation of hides] are termed sweating processes.
1741. Phil. Trans., XLI. II. 855. A Roman Hypocaustum or *Sweating-Room.
1808. Holland, Agric. Cheshire, xiii. 284. Every dairy should be furnished with a regular sweating-room.
1855. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Laconicum,… old term for a sweating-room or stove; a vapour-bath.
1880. Sims, Social Kaleidoscope, Ser. II. xii. 83. The women and children from … the *‘sweating’ shops in the neighbourhood.
1908. Installation News, II. 70/1. The grips are provided with a *sweating socket to receive the earth conductor.
1803. Med. Jrnl., X. 86. The *sweating stage … does not appear with any regularity at the second or third return of the paroxysm.
a. 1851. in Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 328/2. The *sweating system increases the number of hands to an almost incredible extent.
1879. Sims, Social Kaleidoscope, Ser. I. ix. 58. The bulk of the work … is done on the ‘sweating’ system.
1883. Nonconf. & Indep., 28 Dec., 1176/3. The sweating system of the outfitting trade.
1660. Milton, Free Commw., Wks. 1851, V. 445. These Tigers of Bacchus, these new Fanatics of not the preaching but the *sweating-tub, inspir’d with nothing holier than the Venereal Pox.
