sweat and tears

Meanings

1. 1phrasefixed phrase

   Hard work and strong emotion, especially the effort and suffering involved in achieving something.

   Grammar: Used as an uncountable idea; it usually follows words like through, with, or after.

   Patterns

   • through sweat and tears
   • with sweat and tears
   • a lot of sweat and tears

   She built the business through years of sweat and tears.

   The team reached the final with plenty of sweat and tears.

   After all the sweat and tears, the medal felt worth it.

2. 2phraseidiomfigurative

   Part of the fixed expression "blood, sweat and tears", meaning effort involving great personal cost.

   Grammar: Most natural inside the full idiom with blood; on its own it can sound incomplete.

   Patterns

   • blood, sweat and tears
   • give blood, sweat and tears

   He gave blood, sweat and tears to finish the project on time.

   Success in this field takes blood, sweat and tears.

Common combinations

through sweat and tears

They got the project finished through sweat and tears.

blood, sweat and tears

Winning the championship took blood, sweat and tears.

years of sweat and tears

Years of sweat and tears finally paid off for the young athlete.

worth the sweat and tears

The result was worth all the sweat and tears.

Synonyms and how they differ

hard work

A plain, neutral phrase for effort; it lacks the emotional and suffering idea in sweat and tears.

blood, sweat and tears

The fuller idiom; use it when you want to stress great sacrifice as well as effort.

toil

A more literary word for long, tiring work, without the emotional element.

Opposites

Word family

sweat noun

The liquid produced by the body when hot or working hard.

tear noun

A drop of liquid from the eye, often when crying.

Commonly confused: sweat and tears or blood, sweat and tears?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “sweat and tears”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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