a variety of sugar occurring in nature very abundantly, as in ripe grapes, and in honey, and produced in great quantities from starch, etc., by the action of heat and acids. it is only about half as sweet as cane sugar. called also dextrose, grape sugar, diabetic sugar, and starch sugar. see dextrose.-any one of a large class of sugars, isometric with glucose proper, and including levulose, galactose, etc.-the trade name of a sirup, obtained as an uncrystallizable reside in the manufacture of glucose proper, and containing, in addition to some dextrose or glucose, also maltose, dextrin, etc. it is used as a cheap adulterant of sirups, beers, etc.