gruel

Meaning

Noun

1. (countable, uncountable) A thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.
2. (countable, uncountable) Punishment.
3. (countable, uncountable) Something that lacks substance.
4. (US, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable) Sentimental poetry.
5. (British, countable, slang, uncountable) Semen.

Verb

1. (transitive) To exhaust, use up, disable.
2. (transitive) To punish.
3. (British, slang) Ejaculate.

Synonyms

porridge

mush

mess

puree

congee

paste

soup

🍲

conjee

meal

oatmeal

pap

pottage

purée

rice

🍚

atole

purée de pommes de terre mashed potatoes

soft-boiled rice

loblolly pine

barley-water

loblolly bay

cereal

chyle

cooked

erase

food

🍽️

grit

loblolly

Translations

bouillie

pap

gruau

moes

purée

brij

mingau

Brei

papas

purê

Mus

Haferschleim

χυλός

gachas

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈɡɹuːəl/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: gruel

Cognate with Dutch: gruit

Cognate with Middle Low German: grūt

Cognate with Middle High German: grūz

Cognate with German: Grütze

In summary

From Middle English gruel, gruwel, greuel, growel (“meal or flour made from beans, lentils, etc.”), from Old French gruel (“coarse meal; > French gruau”), from Medieval Latin grutellum, diminutive of Medieval Latin grutum (“flour; meal”), from a Germanic source, likely Old English grūt (“meal; grout”) or perhaps Frankish *grūt; both from Proto-Germanic *grūtiz (“ground material; grit”). Compare Dutch gruit, Middle Low German grūt, Middle High German grūz, German Grütze (“grout”). Related also to English groats, grit.