Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To excrete perspiration through the pores of the skin.
- v. To expel through external pores; exude.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To breathe or blow through.
- To evacuate the fluids of the body through the ecretories of te skin; perform excretion by the cuticular pores; sweat.
- To be evacuated or excreted through the excretories of the skin; exude by or through the skin, as a fluid.
- To emit or evacuate through the excretories of the skin; give out through external pores.
Wiktionary
- v. to emit sweat or perspiration through the skin's pores
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. (Physiol.) To excrete matter through the skin; esp., to excrete fluids through the pores of the skin; to sweat.
- v. To be evacuated or excreted, or to exude, through the pores of the skin.
- v. To emit or evacuate through the pores of the skin; to sweat; to excrete through pores.
WordNet 3.0
- v. excrete perspiration through the pores in the skin
Etymologies
- From Old French perspirer, from Latin perspirare ("to breathe everywhere, blow constantly"), from per ("through") + spirare ("to breath"); see spirit. (Wiktionary)
- Latin perspīrāre, to blow steadily : per-, through; see per- + spīrāre, to breathe. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Madame Schwellenberg began to storm in bad English, and told him that he made her "what you call perspire!”
“Plants that live in swamps must "perspire" freely and keep their pores open.”
“In a season of throw-backs, you can add this to the list: Just as our grandmothers insisted that girls don't sweat, they "perspire," there remains a narrow range of acceptable behavior for female athletes.”
“perspire'; 'and go on to your proper place on the tender.”
“The desert sun was merciless, and the exertion necessary to slay the three filthy hill bandits had given cause for the huge barbarian to perspire much more than even he was used to.”
“They have to inspire businesses by choosing the right cause marketing program, and then perspire doing the lion's share of the work to ensure success.”
The Huffington Post: Joe Waters: All Cause Marketing Is Local
“A lot of people still don't understand the importance of using sunscreen and you need a water-resistant sunscreen too, especially if you perspire a lot when you ride, like I do.”
The Wall Street Journal: Kiehl's President on Bikes and Beauty Cream
“Good leaders inspire, but they also perspire over the painful nitty-gritty of policy.”
“Cheerful and distinctively dressed in a jumpsuit and ballet slippers, Mr. LaLanne was fond of slogans like, "First we inspire them, then we perspire them.”
The Wall Street Journal: Jack LaLanne, Media Fitness Guru, Dies at 96
“Exertions tend to cause me to perspire, and the day thus far had been nothing but exertions.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘perspire’.
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Yazhinni Spelling bee
tongue, stallion, scruple, salinity, schedule, rouge, populist, Permian, perspire, pasteurize, multitude, mournful and 227 more...
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spires
arcospire, inspire, squinch, perspire, spirea, aspire, suspire, transpire, leptospire, crocket, whorl, helicoid and 10 more...
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The Vampire Spotter's Guide
Even if you know your Nosferatu from your Dracula, you may not have heard of these before. (Thanks to bilby for the list suggestion on Transpire.)
transpire, empire, umpire, expire, perspire, leptospire, conspire, coconspire, pompire, inspire, spire, aspire and 4 more...
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breathe
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Watchmen (2009)
Words from 2009 'Watchmen' film.
adversary, certitude, deterrent, stockpile, posturing, minuteman, vigilante, toss, flip, spook, carcass, tread and 174 more...
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Most often mispronounced words
across, affidavit, antarctic, arctic, ask, athlete, barbiturate, barbed wire, business, cavalry, candidate, cardsharp and 50 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for perspire.
bilby A clammy vampire. Mar 25, 2009