IdiomBody & Senses
English
Englishsweat blood
Meaning: To put out a great deal of effort; to work very, very hard.
Example: “They sweated blood to get the album finished on time.”
Origin: Linked to the Gospel of Luke (22:44), where Jesus prays in Gethsemane in such anguish that "his sweat was as it were great drops of blood." The phrase for working or worrying intensely is common from the 19th century.
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