# sweat blood

idiom · CEFR C1

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/sweat-blood
Updated: 2026-07-29

## Meaning

To work with extreme, agonising effort or to suffer intense anguish over something.

## Examples

- We sweated blood to finish the report on time.
- She sweated blood over that thesis, rewriting whole chapters in the last exhausting weeks before the deadline.
- The small crew had sweated blood to keep the restaurant open through the lean years, and now, watching the full dining room, they felt the ache of every early morning and unpaid overtime that had bought this ordinary, hard-won success.

## Origin

The image comes from the agony of Jesus in Gethsemane, described in Luke 22:44, where in his distress before the crucifixion his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground. The line captures anguish so severe that the body itself seems to break under it — the extreme physical sign of extreme mental torment. A rare condition in which people under great stress do sweat blood is medically documented, which gives the phrase a disconcerting literal edge. In English to sweat blood means to labour or worry with exhausting intensity — to pour yourself into something so completely, or to agonise over it so deeply, that the effort feels physically punishing.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.