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Glite Dictionary
to break a sweat

to break a sweat

20 4.1
To start sweating from hard work or to need to try hard
  • idiom
  • /breɪk ə swɛt/
  • Informal
translation icon : sudar
  • Student 4 worked hard and broke a sweat during "workouts."
  • even break a sweat
  • never break a sweat
  • barely breaking a sweat

You literally feel like you're breaking a sweat trying to say it just right in the meeting.

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Examples

  • Gomez hasn't even broken a sweat.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • You could fix this issue for all parties without breaking a sweat if you chose to be constructive about it.

    Blog text (19)

  • You might end up making the most money you ever made in your life and not break a sweat, right?

  • This one has been running for two hours without breaking a sweat.

    Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

  • I remember I could do a hundred without even breaking a sweat.

    Vampire Assassin (2005)

  • To his credit, he had yet to break a sweat.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • - I'm not even breaking a sweat.

    Monsters, Inc. (2001)

  • The players aren't the only ones breaking a sweat on the courts at the United States Open.

    Blog text (18)

  • If she were willing to break a sweat, the GOP presidential nomination would be hers for the asking.

    Blog text (10)

  • You can finish this task quickly and without even breaking a sweat.

Antonyms

to take it easy
  • Informal
572 2.5

Relax and avoid doing too much or worrying

How Hard

to try
∞ 1.0
to break a sweat
  • Informal
20 4.1
to rest
24 1.0

Surface Forms

break a sweat infinitive
breaking a sweat present participle
breaks a sweat third person singular
broke a sweat past
broken a sweat past participle

Morphology

break + a + sweat

The meaning 'to begin sweating / to exert oneself' is directly and compositionally derived from 'break' (to cause or start) plus 'sweat' (to perspire), so a learner who knows the constituent words can infer the sense. The common extension 'didn't even break a sweat' (meaning something was easy) is a predictable pragmatic use of that literal sense rather than a wholly idiomatic shift, making the expression readily understandable at B1.

Etymology

Break a sweat comes from the picture of sweat appearing on the skin when someone works hard: the verb break means 'to begin' and sweat is the body's liquid from effort. So, if you 'don't break a sweat' doing something, it means you do it easily.