blood sweat tears
Everything you've got
Blood, sweat, and tears—usually appearing with the full phrase—represents the totality of human effort and sacrifice.
The three substances the body produces under strain stand for exhausting physical labor, anxiety and struggle, and emotional suffering.
Winston Churchill famously promised the British people nothing but "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" in 1940.
The phrase now describes any endeavor requiring enormous dedication: She put blood, sweat, and tears into that dissertation.
- toilStrenuous, prolonged effort
- hard workSustained strenuous effort
- sacrificeGiving up something precious
- struggleLabored effort against resistance
- uphill battleDifficult prolonged endeavor
effort · exhaustion · pain · no pain no gain · labor · hardship · burning the midnight oil · determination · perseverance · trial and error · grit · agony · dedication · heart and soul · suffering · grind · hustle · endurance
- hardshipshardship, adversity, struggle, misfortune, difficulties
- body idiomsheart of gold, heart of stone, cold heart, warm heart, soft heart
- perseverancepersist, never give up, tenacity, hang in there, endurance
- hustlegrind, grit, drive, hustle, tenacity
blood sweat tearseffortlessness
Quality of seeming unstrained
ease · leisure · coasting · smooth sailing · minimal effort
blood sweat tearsdabbling
Shallow, casual involvement
dilettantism · toying with · playing at · passing fancy · flirtation
blood sweat tearsluck
Chance affecting outcomes
good fortune · born into it · windfall · easy street · freebies
blood, sweat, tears, bloody, blooded, bloodied, bloodless, bleeder, sweaty