BY THE SWEAT OF ONE'S BROW Definition & Meaning

by the sweat of one's brow

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Idioms and Phrases

By hard work, as in The only way he'll succeed is by the sweat of his brow . This figurative usage appears in the Bible (Genesis 31:9), where Adam's punishment for eating fruit in Eden is “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread”—that is, he will have to work for his bread, or living. [c. 1600]

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

I am a farmer in the 300-to-400-acre bracket, and it is not enough anymore to work by the sweat of one's brow.

From Time Magazine Archive

The literalness of the saying "making a living by the sweat of one's brow" dawned upon her for the first time.

From

Uncle: I blush to write the name, Monte Carlo, at the head of a letter to anyone that is a Christian, or who believes in honesty and decency, and earning a living by the sweat of one's brow, for this place is the limit.

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To gain one's bread by the sweat of one's brow, is a curse.

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From the moment they cared if they didn't it was living by the sweat of one's brow; and the sweat of one's brow was just what one might buy one's self off from by keeping the ground free of the wild weed of delusion.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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