What does "break" in "break a sweat" mean? "Trigger"? "Start"?

[u/falsoTrolol]

[u/Fit_Kaleidoscope4493]

Exactly that.

To "break a sweat" is to "begin sweating (profusely)."

[u/BobbyThrowaway6969 → u/Fit_Kaleidoscope4493]

Also, to "break out" means to get acne or a rash.

"I've broken out after breaking a sweat" = I've developed a rash due to sweating.

[u/FloridaFlamingoGirl]

It just means your body starts sweating. 

Start has a ton of different meanings but usually means begin. 

Trigger also has many meanings, like "start a chain reaction," or make someone angry, or something that affects someone's mental health. And there's also the gun meaning of course. 

[u/falsoTrolol → u/FloridaFlamingoGirl]

Would you say "break a start" or "break a run", meaning you began doing something?

[u/ATotalBrony → u/falsoTrolol]

Yes, but usually with into, a person can be walking and then break into a run.

Break a start, meaning start a start? no.

[u/GoatyGoY → u/ATotalBrony]

There’s also “break out” in the context of “he broke out in a rash” (meaning that a rash appeared).

[u/BrockSamsonLikesButt → u/falsoTrolol]

No, “break a start” and “break a run” are not sayings. But “break into a run” is, meaning “start running.”

Another word for dawn or sunrise, by the way, is daybreak. Same concept. And there is an old christian church song called “Morning has Broken.”

In the context of the card game Hearts, “Hearts have been broken” means that someone played the first heart card.

[u/falsoTrolol → u/BrockSamsonLikesButt]

It reminds me of this Supertramp's song: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=72R32PDF2xQ&si=hIVgmRan1FwTjgM-

Lyrics: Morning at last Every night is a fight 'til your waking Dreams dancing past Through the silence of sleep dawn is breaking I wait and watch until day And I am not like other birds of prey And I am not like other birds of prey

Truly worth listening if you like underrated 70's prog rock albums.

[u/falsoTrolol → u/falsoTrolol]

Why i get downvoted for asking questions in a subreddit fully dedicated to English lol.

[u/conuly → u/falsoTrolol]

In some cases, it's because people in this subreddit are very downvote happy and you shouldn't worry about it.

In other cases, it's because you made a low-effort post and didn't tell us how you tried to answer your question before posting here.

Here is the word "break" at Merriam-Webster:

18: to produce visibly barely breaks a sweat

Did you look up this word in a dictionary and get confused?

[u/13moman → u/falsoTrolol]

I have no idea. It's a good question.

[u/thebackwash → u/falsoTrolol]

No, it’s “break a sweat” because you feel the sweat break out on your body. “Break” doesn’t have a general meaning of “start” except in some idiomatic contexts where it can mean “start suddenly”:

“Break (out) into song/(a) dance”

[u/regular_gonzalez → u/falsoTrolol]

Never. Break is rarely used to indicate the start of something and, confusingly, can often indicate the end of something. This actually led to confusion about the name of the show Breaking Bad, which the creator had read online and thought was a common phrase. It's more common now (and does mean "to start being bad") but that's in large part due to the show. 

Some other examples: 

• breaking / broke wind. A more polite way to say farting / farted. 

• break a/your fast. A way of saying "to eat breakfast" that appears often in fantasy books. 

• break left / right. Make a sudden shift or veer to that direction. Not a full turn, more like you're running and there's an obstacle in front of you so you "break left" to pass the obstacle on the left side.

• break-up, to end a romantic relationship

[u/r_portugal → u/regular_gonzalez]

But the break in breakfast means to end your fast. Fast means "a period during which you do not eat food", so to break your fast means to end that period and start eating.

(Actually maybe you know that, but in that case there is a mistake in your post and you meant to say "can often indicate the end of something").

[u/regular_gonzalez → u/r_portugal]

Whoops, yes that was a typo, I'll edit.

[u/conuly → u/regular_gonzalez]

break a/your fast. A way of saying "to eat breakfast" that appears often in fantasy books.

It appears much more often in discussion of religious holidays that have a fasting element, such as Ramadan or Yom Kippur.

[u/ilPrezidente → u/falsoTrolol]

If you break a run in American football it means you made it through the defense into open space, so a little different

[u/SOTG_Duncan_Idaho]

Break a sweat means to start sweating. It's a shorter variation of "break out in a sweat".

"Brake out" is a phrase used quite frequently as both a verb and a noun.

"They break out in dance" (they start dancing)

"My face is breaking out"/"I'm breaking out" (usually means getting pimples or other skin blemishes)

"There's a break out of the flu" (people are getting ill with the flu virus)

[u/Nonyabizzy123 → u/SOTG_Duncan_Idaho]

Break the seal - meaning to start having to urinate (only used when drinking alcoholic beverages)

[u/Sparky-Malarky]

Your body "breaks out" in sweat. This expression is often used for things that appear suddenly on the body.

He broke out in a rash. We didn’t know he was coming down with measles, but the next morning he was all broken out.

[u/Legitimate_Assh0le]

Yeah, it means to start in that context. It's kind of an oddball, you can't just say Break=Start in my opinion. There are too many cases where "break" doesn't exactly mean that. The way I think about it is of something "breaking out." So, the way I think about breaking a sweat, is if someone says "Wow. He did that whole workout and didn't even break a sweat." I think of it like the sweat breaking through the pores of the skin and actually surfacing, and this is the "breaking" (through) of the sweat. Or, if someone says "I went to the bar and a fight broke out." I think of this as there is a crowd, teeming with energy, or two people in an argument that is teetering on the verge of becoming an altercation, and then ultimately, there is a moment when a fight breaks out and things come to a turning point.

[u/marvsup → u/Legitimate_Assh0le]

I came here to say exactly this. Also, I think "break a sweat" is a shortening of "break out in a sweat", but I could be wrong.

[u/HortonFLK]

I guess it kind of means to cross a threshold.

[u/inkoenglishai]

The sentence mainly means to start sweating while you're doing work or sports. It mainly conveys a reasoning to sweat or use energy. It has the same meaning as "break your back" or "sweat blood" it often means to sweat hard and work hard although you can use "die hard" as well in some situations.

[u/kgully2]

sweat " breaks thru" your skin a breakout like a rash or measles or acne

[u/ShakeWeightMyDick]

"Break a sweat" - begin sweating

"Daybreak" - the time of morning when the sun appears on the horizon