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Perspire   /pərspˈaɪr/   Listen
Perspire

verb
(past & past part. perspired; pres. part. perspiring)
1.
Excrete perspiration through the pores in the skin.  Synonyms: sudate, sweat.






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Perspire" Quotes from Famous Books



... Trees perspire profusely, condense largely, and check evaporation so much, that woods are always moist: no wonder therefore that they contribute much to pools ...
— The Natural History of Selborne • Gilbert White

... delicate structures which it covers, assists in the regulation of the temperature of the body, and excretes waste products. The excretory function of the skin is always active, but we are unconscious of this activity except on warm days and at times when we perspire freely. In the coldest weather, however, the body throws off what physiologists call the "insensible perspiration." The most important measures for the care of the skin are those intended to insure the activity of the sweat glands, namely, bathing and proper clothing. But before considering ...
— The Prospective Mother - A Handbook for Women During Pregnancy • J. Morris Slemons

... perspiring—especially with noble rage. It does it good, discharges the black humours of the body. If I could perspire more freely I should be singing in ...
— The Mountebank • William J. Locke

... in a dry day, when they are tolerably ripe; rub off the down with a linen cloth, and lay them in hay or straw for ten days to perspire. Cut them in quarters, take out the cores, and bruise them well in a mashing tub with a wooden pestle. Squeeze out the liquid part by degrees, by pressing them in a hair bag in a cider press. Strain the liquor through a fine sieve, then warm it gently over a fire, and skim it, but do not ...
— The Cook and Housekeeper's Complete and Universal Dictionary; Including a System of Modern Cookery, in all Its Various Branches, • Mary Eaton

... delirium tremens, if the tincture of Capsicum be given in doses of half-a-dram well diluted with water, it will reduce the tremor and agitation in a few hours, inducing presently a calm prolonged sleep. At the same time the skin will become warm, and will perspire naturally; the pulse will fall in quickness, but whilst regaining fulness and volume; and the kidneys, together with the ...
— Herbal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure • William Thomas Fernie

... a little fat man, who seemed to do nothing but perspire and mop his forehead, "they say the proof of the pudding is in the eating. I know one thing, however, Parang is a glorious country for ...
— Middy and Ensign • G. Manville Fenn

... the hole with the slice you have cut off, roast the whole on hot ashes so long till well incorporated and mixed together, then squeeze out the juice of the roasted onion, and give it to a person seized with the plague. Let him presently lie down in his bed and be well covered up that he may perspire. This is a remedy that has not its equal for the plague, provided the patient ...
— Storyology - Essays in Folk-Lore, Sea-Lore, and Plant-Lore • Benjamin Taylor

... the same Nature with the former, we shall continue our Remarks. The Reason why it seldom thunders in Winter is, because the exterior Parts of the Earth are so contracted by the cold Snow and Ice, that Sulphur cannot perspire in any great Quantities, but as soon as the Earth begins to be opened by the Sun in the Spring, something expires in the Month of April which takes Fire. But by the greater Heat of the Sun penetrating deeper into the Earth, the Cortex is more opened in May, and now there is a more ...
— The Shepherd of Banbury's Rules to Judge of the Changes of the Weather, Grounded on Forty Years' Experience • John Claridge

... 'The powerful Satyavan then, accompanied by his wife, plucked fruits and filled his wallet with them. And he then began to fell branches of trees. And as he was hewing them, he began to perspire. And in consequence of that exercise his head began to ache. And afflicted with toil, he approached his beloved wife, and addressed her, saying, "O Savitri, owing to this hard exercise my head acheth, and all my limbs and my heart ...
— The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa Bk. 3 Pt. 2 • Translated by Kisari Mohan Ganguli

... a glove. The hand in which she then put hers was soft and warm and she feared that it might perspire. She looked at the woman who looked at her, sighed, closed her eyes and appeared to go to sleep. Then, presently, her lips parted and in a voice totally different from that in which she had just spoken, a voice that was thin and ...
— The Paliser case • Edgar Saltus

... planted on its middle. By then, needless to remark, the bloom is off the chocolate. It has the look of being clutched in a warm hand during an entire circus parade. Whereat you glance about furtively and quickly eat it. It is nice the room is cold; already you fairly perspire. One mussed piece of naked brown paper in ...
— Working With the Working Woman • Cornelia Stratton Parker

... was nothing there ... you know what I mean, nothing, nothing, nothing, whatever! In the neighboring country houses there were a few disgusting boors, who cared for nothing but shooting, and who lived in country houses which had not even a bathroom, men who perspire, go to bed covered with perspiration, and whom it would be impossible to improve, because their principles of life are dirty. Now just guess what I did!" "I cannot possibly." "Ha! ha! ha! I had just been reading a number of George Sand's novels which exalt the man of the people, novels in which ...
— The Works of Guy de Maupassant, Vol. 1 (of 8) - Boule de Suif and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... almost without pausing for breath, but when the sun rose high in the sky and began to scorch, the camels, which by nature perspire but little, were covered with sweat, and their pace slackened considerably. The caravan again was surrounded by rocks and dunes. The ravines, which during the rainy season are changed into channels of streams, or so-called "khors," came ...
— In Desert and Wilderness • Henryk Sienkiewicz

... you fellows make a mistake," cautioned Captain Wadleigh. "Don't get a notion that you've nothing bigger than Welton to tackle this year. Next Saturday you've got to go up against Tottenville, and there's an eleven that will make you perspire." ...
— The High School Left End - Dick & Co. Grilling on the Football Gridiron • H. Irving Hancock

... the junto crumbling into small dust in the precise moment of fruition, and had a sharp attack of ante-triumph which he had to walk off in turns up and down the long platform. But as the waiting grew longer, and the dragging minutes totaled the quarter-hour and then the half, he began to perspire again. ...
— The Grafters • Francis Lynde

... that to none else in the room but me was this performance sufficiently heartrending. At the end, amidst much suppressed tittering, there would come a chorus of "Thank you very much!" "How interesting!" And in spite of its being winter I would perspire all over. Who would have predicted at my birth or at his death what a severe blow to me would be the ...
— My Reminiscences • Rabindranath Tagore

... it disappears after labor, and returns on every subsequent pregnancy. Oftentimes the skin becomes loose and wrinkled, giving a haggard, aged air to the face, and spoiling good looks. Women who ordinarily perspire freely, have now a dry, rough skin; whereas those whose skin is not naturally moist, have copious perspiration, which may be of a peculiarly strong odor. Copper-colored or yellow blotches sometimes appear upon the skin, mole ...
— The Physical Life of Woman: - Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother • Dr. George H Napheys

... me perspire,' said Mary. As she bumped the chair under the porch she straightened her long back. The exertion had given her a colour, and the wind had loosened a wisp of hair across her forehead. Miss ...
— A Diversity of Creatures • Rudyard Kipling

... the fresh air, you are giving the other parts of your body such a good chance to perspire, that your feet can bear a little shutting up. But as soon as you come into the house, ...
— Child's Health Primer For Primary Classes • Jane Andrews

... noticed, in very warm weather, that dogs and other domestic animals are seen with their tongues out of their mouths, and covered with frothy secretions. This is merely another mode of reducing animal heat, as the skin of such animals does not perspire as much as ...
— A Treatise on Anatomy, Physiology, and Hygiene (Revised Edition) • Calvin Cutter

... may be struck down and die very soon with symptoms of failure of the heart, difficult breathing and coma. This kind is most frequent in soldiers. In ordinary cases there may be failure to perspire, premonitory headache, dizziness, sometimes nausea and vomiting, colored or poor sight (vision); insensibility follows, which may be temporary or increased deep coma. The face is flushed, the skin is dry and ...
— Mother's Remedies - Over One Thousand Tried and Tested Remedies from Mothers - of the United States and Canada • T. J. Ritter

... Matron Friday Club. If I wasn't so rushed I think I—I could just sit down and have a good cry. Albert, be careful of those silk sleeve garters I sent you for your wedding shirt, don't adjust them too tight; and you know how you catch cold. Don't perspire and go in a draught. And—and Albert, I see I have to remind you of little things the way I do Ben. You men with your heads so chock full of business!" (Very sotto voce.) "Send Lilly flowers this afternoon. Lilies-of-the-valley ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst

... a rule get enough fresh air. They are kept indoors most of the time in stuffy, overheated, badly ventilated rooms, unless the weather is absolutely perfect. The windows in their bedrooms are always kept closed, because they are "liable to catch cold." They are overdressed and perspire easily and as a result "catch cold." These conditions all tend to create an unhealthy condition of the nasal mucous membrane and of the throat, and this is rendered worse if the child lives in a damp, changeable climate, such as that of New York City. ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Volume IV. (of IV.) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • Grant Hague

... Running up from the floor and almost touching the roof, are rows of seats for the spectators or gamblers—they come to be the same. During the combat these seats are filled with men and children who cry, shout, perspire, quarrel, and blaspheme. Fortunately, scarcely any women visit the cock-pit. In the rueda are the prominent men, the rich class, the bettors, the bookmaker, and the referee. The cocks fight on the ground, which is beaten down perfectly smooth, and there Destiny distributes ...
— Friars and Filipinos - An Abridged Translation of Dr. Jose Rizal's Tagalog Novel, - 'Noli Me Tangere.' • Jose Rizal

... the animal kingdom, and no person can feel offended at being called an animal, yet society observes certain distinctions in speaking of men and of beasts. To sweat and to feed are expressions that apply to the latter; to perspire and to eat to ...
— Slips of Speech • John H. Bechtel

... a good thing to dry-soap your feet and the inside of your socks before putting them on for a hike or tramp. This is an old army trick. If your feet perspire freely, powder them with boric acid powder, starch, and oxide of zinc in equal parts. Wash the feet every day, best on turning in ...
— Camping For Boys • H.W. Gibson

... out of his mouth like a running hound's, but he seemed, like a hound, to perspire through his mouth, for he answered without the least sign of distress, without even pulling in ...
— Hereward, The Last of the English • Charles Kingsley

... it be, Master Bob!" said Dick, when the sun had climbed so high that he seemed right overhead, sending down his rays vertically and making it so warm that the boys began to perspire, while they were tormented with thirst. "I be parched wi' drout and could swaller a gallon o' spring wutter if I hed ...
— Bob Strong's Holidays - Adrift in the Channel • John Conroy Hutcheson

... douche you with tubs of hot water, then they shampoo you with fresh layers of soap, and then douche again. They give you iced sherbet, and tie towels dipped in cold water round your head, which prevent you fainting and make you perspire. They scrub your feet with pumice- stone, and move you back through all the rooms gradually, douche you with water, and shampoo you with towels. You now return to the large hall where you first undressed, wrap in woollen shawls, and recline on ...
— The Romance of Isabel Lady Burton Volume II • Isabel Lady Burton & W. H. Wilkins

... premature end. Emerging from some such fit of abstraction he became aware that it was after twelve. Convivial spirit that he was, he hurried to join his colleagues at their dinner, displaying remarkable agility as he descended the scaffold. But the effort caused him to perspire, and he took a chill, from which he ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 158, June 9, 1920 • Various

... choked with the sulphurous heat of the weather—or I am unwell, for I perspire as if I had been walking hard, and my hand is as nervous as a paralytic's. Read through and corrected St. Ronan's Well. I am no judge, but I think the language of this piece rather good. Then I must allow the fashionable portraits ...
— The Journal of Sir Walter Scott - From the Original Manuscript at Abbotsford • Walter Scott

... weather rivers are warm; it is not so with springs, whose water has not been in contact with the air. You must wait till the temperature of the water is the same as that of the air. In winter, on the other hand, spring water is safer than river water. It is, however, unusual and unnatural to perspire greatly in winter, especially in the open air, for the cold air constantly strikes the skin and drives the perspiration inwards, and prevents the pores opening enough to give it passage. Now I do not intend Emile to take ...
— Emile • Jean-Jacques Rousseau

... (1 and 2 combined) spirit, spiritual, perspire, transpire, respire, aspire, conspiracy, ...
— The Century Vocabulary Builder • Creever & Bachelor

... lie down in a crouched position on the bamboo platform, and when the doors are shut it must be nearly or quite dark inside. The girls are never allowed to come out except once a day to bathe in a dish or wooden bowl placed close to each cage. They say that they perspire profusely. They are placed in these stifling cages when quite young, and must remain there until they are young women, when they are taken out and have each a great marriage feast provided for them. One of them was about fourteen or fifteen years old, and the chief told us ...
— The Golden Bough - A study of magic and religion • Sir James George Frazer

... soldier's 'eart to penk, wot makes 'im to perspire? It isn't standin' up to charge nor lyin' down to fire; But it's everlastin' waitin' on a everlastin' road For the commissariat camel an' 'is commissariat load. O the oont*, O the oont, O the commissariat oont! With 'is silly neck a-bobbin' ...
— Verses 1889-1896 • Rudyard Kipling

... French Protestant minister talked oddly about conjugal fidelity. An unlucky member of the household mentioned a passage in the Morning Herald reflecting on the Queen; and forthwith Madame Schwellenberg began to storm in bad English, and told him that he made her "what you call perspire!" ...
— Critical and Historical Essays, Volume III (of 3) • Thomas Babington Macaulay

... him. His most fitting salutation to each fellow-peptic, as he crossed the field of vision, would have been the Chinese form of greeting: "How is your stomach? Have you eaten your rice?" or, perhaps, the Egyptian style: "How do you perspire?" With him, the peptic bond was the only real one; all others were shams. All sin was peptic in origin: Eve ate an apple which disagreed with her. The only satisfactory atonement, therefore, must be gastric. ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 • Various

... there, wishing to rid herself of everyone, and of life too. She was becoming a real storehouse for blows. Coupeau had a cudgel, which he called his ass's fan, and he fanned his old woman. You should just have seen him giving her abominable thrashings, which made her perspire all over. She was no better herself, for she bit and scratched him. Then they stamped about in the empty room and gave each other such drubbings as were likely to ease them of all taste for bread for good. But Gervaise ended by not caring a fig for these thwacks, not more than she ...
— L'Assommoir • Emile Zola

... says, 'if it wasn't you wouldn't be touring around to sell your own books after you've wrote them. That is hard work. Now, I have to stay in this kitchen and perspire because I have to, but if you was rich off your books you wouldn't sit on that chair and get all stewed up. I can ...
— Kilo - Being the Love Story of Eliph' Hewlitt Book Agent • Ellis Parker Butler

... Council, to perspire In our fire!" And for answer to the argument, in vain We explain That an amateur Saint Lawrence cannot fry: "All must fry!" That the Merchant risks the perils of the Plain ...
— The Works of Rudyard Kipling One Volume Edition • Rudyard Kipling

... the padres might be replenished toward a fresh bout at the monte table. Then there was an evening procession of the Saint of the day (John), whose image, set upon a platform, was carried about the town, until the five or six fellows who bore the load were seen to perspire freely ...
— The White Chief - A Legend of Northern Mexico • Mayne Reid

... that the safety valve of the body in hot weather is the evaporation of perspiration, not the act of perspiring. If the hand is put in a glove, for instance, it will perspire much more than if in the open air, but it will not be as cool. It is the evaporation that is a cooling process. If the perspiration is absorbed it cannot evaporate. That is why loose fitting undergarments are cooler than tight ...
— The Eugenic Marriage, Vol. 3 (of 4) - A Personal Guide to the New Science of Better Living and Better Babies • W. Grant Hague

... friend. They started with a flourish of trumpets and an old boot, and walked down the middle of Vere Street, accompanied by the neighbours' good wishes; but as they got into the Westminster Bridge Road and nearer to the church, the happy couple grew silent, and Harry began to perspire freely, so that his collar gave him perfect torture. There was a public-house just opposite the church, and it was suggested that they should have a drink before going in. As it was a solemn occasion they went into the private ...
— Liza of Lambeth • W. Somerset Maugham

... him, Otty," Jimmy implored. "He's down. And listen to me, Farrell," he went on, swinging about. "You can't help it: it's the Hire System working out through the pores. You don't perspire what you think you're perspiring, though you're doing it freely enough. . . . Now, Otty—for ...
— Foe-Farrell • Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

... their souls out, turning a windlass outside the gates—ach, that terrible invention of his!" groaned old Conrad. "My poor sons are faint with fatigue, mein herr. You should see them perspire,—and ...
— A Fool and His Money • George Barr McCutcheon

... elements, some other means than the stomach are indispensable for disposing of the refuse. As a matter of fact, in the hot, dry, even temperature of the steppe, where patients are encouraged to remain out-of-doors all day and drink slowly, they perspire kumys. When the system becomes thoroughly saturated with this food-drink, catarrh often makes its appearance, but disappears at the close of the cure. Colic, constipation, diarrhoea, nose-bleed, and bleeding from the lungs are also present at times, ...
— Russian Rambles • Isabel F. Hapgood

... mode of salutation. They ride at a gallop toward a stranger, as though they would unhorse him, and when close at hand suddenly check their horse and fire a pistol over the person's head. The Egyptian solicitously asks you, "How do you perspire?" and lets his hand fall to the knee. The Chinese bows low and inquires, "Have you eaten?" The Spaniard says, "God be with you, sir," or, "How do you stand?" And the Neapolitan piously remarks, "Grow in holiness." The German asks, "How goes it ...
— Our Deportment - Or the Manners, Conduct and Dress of the Most Refined Society • John H. Young

... go out of, come out of, move out of, pass out of, pour out of, flow out of; pass out of, evacuate. exude, transude; leak, run through, out through; percolate, transcolate^; egurgitate^; strain, distill; perspire, sweat, drain, ooze; filter, filtrate; dribble, gush, spout, flow out; well, well out; pour, trickle, &c (water in motion) 348; effuse, extravasate [Med.], disembogue^, discharge itself, debouch; come forth, break forth; burst out, burst through; find vent; ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... Morris commenced to perspire with embarrassment as he remembered how he had planned to negotiate a match for this glorious creature—a task that only a very prince of marriage brokers might have essayed. He turned away; but as his eye rested on B. Gurin, who still lingered over the presents, ...
— Abe and Mawruss - Being Further Adventures of Potash and Perlmutter • Montague Glass

... should be about ninety-eight degrees on Fahrenheit's scale, or of such a warmth, as may be most agreeable to his sensation; but on leaving the bath he should always be kept so cool, whether he goes into bed, or continues up, as not sensibly to perspire. ...
— The Temple of Nature; or, the Origin of Society - A Poem, with Philosophical Notes • Erasmus Darwin

... smoky and uncomfortable as hell, but the congregations will laugh instead of tremble. The old shudder has gone. Beecher had demolished hell before sheol was adopted. According to his doctrine of evolution hell has been slowly growing cool. The cindered souls do not even perspire. Sheol is nothing to Mr. Beecher but a new name for an old mistake. As for the effect it will have on Heber Newton, I cannot tell, neither can he, until he asks his bishop. There are people who believe ...
— The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume VIII. - Interviews • Robert Green Ingersoll

... or on a hot brick wrapped in flannel. Then light the spirits of wine, which will very soon make a famous hot-air bath. By giving the patient a little cold water to drink, perspiration will be encouraged; if he finds the air inconveniently hot before he begins to perspire, he can use the sponge and slop-basin ...
— A New Illustrated Edition of J. S. Rarey's Art of Taming Horses • J. S. Rarey

... evaporation) about 77. Hence it is clear the chief means of loss are the skin and the lungs. The more air that passes in and out of the lungs in a given time, the greater the loss of heat. And in such animals as the dog, who do not perspire easily by the skin, respiration becomes ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Part 1, Slice 1 • Various

... stroke that put us along at the rate of about three knots with little or no fatigue. The worst of it was that it did not last long, for within ten minutes the sun had dried our clothes again, and we began to perspire once more. But we soon found a simple remedy for this by ceasing work just long enough to enable us to pour two or three buckets of water over each other, and then getting to work again; and although these frequent stoppages no doubt had the effect of retarding ...
— Turned Adrift • Harry Collingwood

... them warm. When you run fast, or wrestle, or work hard, your muscle-cells work faster, and make more waste, and you breathe faster to get in the oxygen to burn this up—in other words, you fan the body fires, and in consequence you get a great deal hotter, and perhaps perspire in order to get rid ...
— A Handbook of Health • Woods Hutchinson

... suppose to be their organ of respiration, seems to require light as well as air; since plants which grow in windows on the inside of houses are equally sollicitous to turn the upper side of their leaves to the light. Vegetables at the same time exsude or perspire a great quantity from their leaves, as animals do from their lungs; this perspirable matter as it rises from their fine vessels, (perhaps much finer than the pores of animal skins,) is divided into inconcievable tenuity; ...
— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin



Words linked to "Perspire" :   egest, pass, eliminate, perspiration, swelter, excrete



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