English

Alternative forms

• diarrhoea (British)
• diarrhœa (archaic)

Noun

diarrhea ‎(countable and uncountable, plural diarrheas)

1. A stomach disorder characterized by frequent and very soft or watery bowel movements.
2. (chiefly US, Britain) The watery or very soft excrement that comes from such bowel movements.
   • 2008, Danna Korn and Connie Sarros, Gluten-Free Cooking for Dummies, Chapter 1:

     My Pampers bill is higher than your paycheck, my hands are raw from washing them every six minutes, and I do eight loads of laundry a day because everything we own is covered in diarrhea, and you want me to "plug him up" and wait another three weeks?

   • 2009, Daniel Everett, Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes, page 47:

     I looked and saw that she and her hammock were covered in diarrhea.

   • 2014, L. A. Knight, Dog Training the American Male, 221:

     Why was she covered in diarrhea?

Usage notes

• Diarrhea is the American and Canadian spelling; diarrhoea is the British spelling.

Synonyms

• (medical condition): the runs, the ****, the squirts (US), the trots, the squits (both UK), the skitters (Scottish and Northern English) (all slang)
• See also Wikisaurus:diarrhea

Hyponyms

• Montezuma's revenge (informal)
• Pharao's revenge (informal)

Related terms

• galactorrhea/galactorrhoea
• gonorrhea/gonorrhoea
• logorrhea/logorrhoea
• pyorrhea/pyorrhoea
• rheology

Translations

See also

• constipation