Idiom
sweat of one's brow
Meaning
The effort extended in (often manual) labour, and the value created thereby.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He built his house by the sweat of his brow.”
“You earn every dollar through the sweat of your brow.”
“She saved enough money to buy her first car through the hard work and sweat of her brow.”
“The young entrepreneur refused to take a loan, preferring to build her small business from nothing through the sweat of her brow.”
“After months of digging and planting, the community finally enjoyed a garden created entirely by the sweat of their brow.”
“The old farmer looked at his vast, golden fields and felt proud of the harvest he had earned by the sweat of his brow.”
Examples
simple
“He built his house by the sweat of his brow.”
“You earn every dollar through the sweat of your brow.”
contextual
“She saved enough money to buy her first car through the hard work and sweat of her brow.”
“The young entrepreneur refused to take a loan, preferring to build her small business from nothing through the sweat of her brow.”
“After months of digging and planting, the community finally enjoyed a garden created entirely by the sweat of their brow.”
complex
“The old farmer looked at his vast, golden fields and felt proud of the harvest he had earned by the sweat of his brow.”
Origin
A reference to Genesis 3:17 and 19 in the Bible (King James Version; spelling modernized): “And unto Adam he [God] said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, … In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground: …”, meaning that due to disobedience to God, humans would henceforth have to exert labour for their food, causing their brows or foreheads to perspire.
Key words
Related idioms
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