diabetes

Noun

diabetes (uncountable)

1. Diabetes mellitus; any of a group of metabolic diseases whereby a person (or other animal) has high blood sugar due to an inability to produce, or inability to metabolize, sufficient quantities of the hormone insulin.
   • In the UK, one in 10 people over 40 live with type 2 diabetes, while one in four have high blood pressure, a condition described as a “silent killer” because it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke but rarely causes symptoms beforehand.2020 September 7, Ian Sample, The Guardian

   Synonyms:

   diabetes mellitus, DM, diabeetus

2. (humorous, slang) Any food or beverage with a high amount of sugar.
   • This milkshake is pure diabetes, as my friends and I agreed on as a joke when we first came to Black Tap.2017 August 6, “The craziest things you have to eat in New York City”, in Silver Stories
3. Diabetes insipidus; any condition characterized by excessive or incontinent urine, now specifically as caused by impaired production of, or response to, the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin.
   • A Sheeps or Goats bladder being burnt, and the ashes given inwardly, helps the Diabetes, or continuall pissing.1649, Nicholas Culpeper, The Physical Directory
   • The lady laboured under a Diabetes, in consequence of having used the waters injudiciously for another complaint; and, that she might not be an impediment to the carriage, by ordering it to halt,as often as she should have occasion to disembogue, she had provided herself with a leathern contrivance...1751, [Tobias] Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC