gruel

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Beside the gruel was a tin pannikin of cold water which the boy Abe fetched every hour from the spring.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun A thin watery porridge.
  2. noun Chiefly British Severe punishment.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (4)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • The rest of the gruel could be dumped or frozen as a mushroomy stock. —  The Cottage Smallholder
  • In my last lucubration I proposed the general use of water-gruel, and hinted that it might not be amiss at this very season: but as there are some, whose cases, in regard to their families, will not admit of delay, I have used my interest in several wards of the city, that the wholesome restorative above-mentioned may be given in tavern kitchens to all the mornings draught-men within the walls when they call for wine before noon 19. —  The Young Gentleman and Lady's Monitor, and English Teacher's Assistant
  • And the wife prepared bowls full of rice-gruel, and every one, children and all, ate the rice-gruel till the skins on their stomachs felt quite tight. —  Deccan Nursery Tales
  • They fed me on water-gruel, and I speedily became a skeleton above ground. —  The Blithedale Romance
  • Beside the gruel was a tin pannikin of cold water which the boy Abe fetched every hour from the spring. —  The Path of the King
 

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English gruel, gruwel, grewel, growel, from Old French gruel, later gruau, coarse meal, French gruau, meal, oatmeal, grits, groats, gruel, from Middle Latin grutellum (later, after Old French, gruellum), diminutive of grutum (later Old French gru, Provencal gru), meal, from Anglo-Saxon grūt, meal, grout: see grout.
  2. from gruel, n.
 

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/ˈgruɛl/
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