sweat (redirected from breaking a sweat)

sweat (swet) perspiration; the clear liquid secreted by the sweat glands.

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sweat (swt)

v.

To excrete perspiration through the pores in the skin; perspire.

n.

1. The colorless saline moisture excreted by the sweat glands; perspiration.

2. The process of sweating.

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sweat (swet),

n perspiration. A clear liquid exuded or excreted from the sudoriferous glands. It possesses a characteristic odor and is slightly alkaline, salty to the taste, and, when mixed with sebaceous secretion, acidic. Sweating is under the control of the sympathetic nervous system, although it may be stimulated by parasympathetic drugs. Thermoregulatory sweating is influenced by the blood temperature's affecting the nervous centers and by reflexes associated with heat receptors in the skin.

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sweat

the excretion of the sweat (sudoriparous) glands of the skin; perspiration. Sweating produces an evaporative cooling of the body, the importance varying between species, and also serves an excretory function. Substances eliminated in sweat include water, sodium chloride and small amounts of urea, lactic acid and potassium ions. In humans the ability to lose heat by sweating is much greater than that in domestic animals. Cattle have a high sweat rate (150 g/m²/h at 40°C), sheep lose less (32 g/m²/h) and dogs lose an insignificant amount. Horses probably have the highest sweat rate of all.

Excessive sweating is called diaphoresis, hyperhidrosis.

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atrichial sweat gland

see sweat glands (below).

eccrine sweat gland

called also atrichial sweat gland; see sweat glands (below).

sweat fly

Morrelia aenescens, M. hortorum, M. simplex.

sweat glands

the glands that secrete sweat, situated in the corium or subcutaneous tissue, and opening by a duct on the surface of the body. They are of two types: (1) the ordinary or eccrine sweat glands are unbranched, coiled, tubular glands that promote cooling by evaporation of their secretion. They are innervated by cholinergic nerve fibers; (2) the apocrine sweat glands are large, branched, specialized glands that empty into the upper portion of a hair follicle instead of directly onto the skin surface, and have no secretory innervation but are sensitive to epinephrine in the bloodstream. Called also sudoriferous, or sudoriparous, glands.

paratrichial sweat gland

see apocrine sweat gland.

sweat scraper

a semicircular band of metal with a handle to be dragged over a horse's skin like a squeegee to remove excess moisture quickly.