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2006-10-11 18:53:36 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
lather refers to sweat . .
work up a lather means to get excited or agitated or exercised to the point of sweating . .
in dogs, the sweat looks like lather
oops, i just read the first two answers . . . they are right - it can also be a description on shampoo . .to rub the shampoo in your hair until it forms a lather.
2006-10-11 18:55:42 · answer #1 · answered by a_blue_grey_mist 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The saying comes from the lather look of horses sweating. After a day in the field, the horses were brought home and washed down because of a lather looking sweat that would make the horse sick if they were not washed off. Same as humans sweating and cooling off to soon makes us sick.
Thus comes the saying "work up a lather".
Working up a lather also comes from washing your hair with any kind of soap. The soap will work better when you "work up a lather" in your hair. The lather does not clean your hair, but lets us see that the soap is working. Same as a color in the toothpaste you use. Just to let you see it is there.
2006-10-11 19:10:14 · answer #2 · answered by Mary D 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It means that you work hard enought to break a sweat - if horses work too hard they actually have a lather to their skin - so when people were spoken of working hard - they could be spoken about as "working up a lather".
2006-10-11 18:58:51 · answer #3 · answered by PP4865 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It depends on what you're referring to. It could mean 'work up a sweat' through hard labour or due to becoming stressed-out or it could literally mean, work up a lather so you have created plenty of soap suds...
2006-10-11 18:55:41 · answer #4 · answered by Kble 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
move it around to make foam (like a shampoo, etc). BAsically what happens when you shampoo your hair.
2006-10-11 18:55:19 · answer #5 · answered by cpinatsi 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
work until u sweat basically
2006-10-11 19:02:32 · answer #6 · answered by howcor 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋