sweat bullets

Idioms  

1. Perspire profusely; also, suffer mental anguish. For example, We were sweating bullets, sitting in the sun through all those graduation speeches, or It was their first baby, and David was sweating bullets while Karen was in labor. The bullets in this expression allude to drops of perspiration the size of bullets. [Slang; mid-1900s]

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Example Sentences

De Luca and Abdy have bet on big budget projects by auteur directors not based on tested intellectual property, the kinds of movies that make risk-averse studio chiefs sweat bullets.

From Los Angeles Times

Publicists sweat bullets; suits and countersuits are threatened.

From Los Angeles Times

Really, it’s a reminder of what an accomplishment Martin Scorsese’s “The Departed” is: How we sweat bullets along with the undercover protagonist during every beat of the way in that Oscar winner.

From Los Angeles Times

Hotz turns off the geofencing, and we leave the interstate and begin driving north on Junipero Serra Boulevard, a two-way, four-lane road with all the variables like bicyclists, train tracks, and complex intersections that make most self-driving operators sweat bullets.

From The Verge

But you don't have to join a gym and sweat bullets five days a week.

From US News