Dictionary

perspire en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /pɚˈspaɪɹ/ (Canada, General-American)
• /pəˈspaɪə(ɹ)/ (Received-Pronunciation)
• /pəˈspɑɪə(ɹ)/ (Australia)
• /pɚˈspaɪɚ/ (Canada, General-American)
• (California) audio

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French perspirer and its source Latin perspīrō (“to breathe everywhere, blow constantly”), from per (“through”) + spīrō (“to breathe”); see spirit.

Meanings

1. (ambitransitive) To emit (sweat or perspiration) through the skin's pores.
   • He lists forty reasons, mainly metaphorical, why Christ perspired blood, and his peroration takes twenty-two pages in print. 2010, Susan C. Karant-Nunn, The Reformation of Feeling:
   • I was perspiring freely after running the marathon.
2. (intransitive) To be evacuated or excreted, or to exude, through the pores of the skin.
   • A fluid perspires.
3. (ambitransitive, rare) To cause (someone) to sweat.
   • Outside his window a long, humid summer, the first hot season of the third millennium, baked and perspired. 2001, Salman Rushdie, Fury: A Novel, London: Jonathan Cape, →ISBN, page 3:
   • We shook hands, he looked surprised to see me topless. I stimulated his mind. ¶ “Nice to meet you. My workout jogging perspired me a lot, so I removed the T-shirt.” 2016, Pradip Chauhan, Love Stories, New Delhi: Educreation Publishing, →ISBN, page 48:

Forms

Deriveds

perspirability · perspirable · perspiry

Relateds

inspire · conspire · respire · perspiration · transpire

Synonyms

sweat · sweat