to feel a hypo

9.5

To have low blood sugar and feel shaky, sweat, or become confused

phrasal verb

Jargon

: sentir una hipoglucemia

She always carries glucose tablets in case she feels a hypo during the day.

Examples

After missing lunch, he suddenly felt a hypo coming on and needed to eat something quickly.
She often feels a hypo after exercising.
If you feel a hypo, it's important to treat it right away to prevent complications.
I feel a hypo coming on.
After missing lunch, he suddenly felt a hypo coming on and needed to eat something quickly.
If you feel a hypo, it's important to treat it right away to prevent complications.
She always carries glucose tablets in case she feels a hypo during the day.

Antonyms

stability

363 3.1

Being steady and not likely to change

How Severe

to feel a hypo

Jargon

9.5

hypoglycemic

Specialized

8 7.9

Surface Forms

feel a hypo infinitive

feeling a hypo present participle

feels a hypo third person singular

felt a hypo past

felt a hypo past participle

Morphology

feel + a + hypo

The verb 'feel' and the article 'a' are fully transparent (experience + one episode), but the noun 'hypo' is a clipped, domain-specific form of 'hypoglycemia' whose meaning is not derivable from general knowledge or from the morphemes 'hypo-'. Because understanding the whole expression hinges on prior lexical knowledge of this medical abbreviation rather than compositional inference, it is only partially transparent to learners.

Etymology

Feel a hypo comes from the short word hypo, used for 'low blood sugar'. When someone's blood sugar drops they can feel weak, shaky, or confused, so to feel a hypo means to have that low-sugar episode and need to eat or drink something sweet quickly.