Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A thin watery porridge.
  • noun Chiefly British Severe punishment.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A fluid or semi-liquid food, usually for infants or invalids, made by boiling meal or any farinaceous substance in water.
  • noun Hence Any pasty mess.
  • To exhaust; use up; disable.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A light, liquid food, made by boiling meal of maize, oatmeal, or flour in water or milk; thin porridge.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A thin, watery porridge.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a thin porridge (usually oatmeal or cornmeal)

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French gruel ( > French gruau), from Frankish *grūt. Compare German Grütze ("grout"), English groats, grit.

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Examples

  • Now that a group of people demand their rightful place at the table, you have to make it seem that we demand waiters and fine chefs from France or some TEH HOMO COUNTRY while you guys eat plain gruel … as if we demand special rights.

    Think Progress » Former Bush Solicitor General Ted Olson goes after right-wing fear-mongering on marriage equality. 2010

  • Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Are you tired of thin gruel ...

    Are you tired of thin gruel... 2009

  • Rather thin gruel considering the Rape Room he has established at Treasury.

    Matthew Yglesias » Obama on Sweden 2009

  • But seriously, I may not agree with that person, but I would not assume they were racist from the thin gruel of this story.

    Advisor: Was it cruel to let poor kids in India play with my iPod? Boing Boing 2009

  • Again, the answer is almost certainly, No. Such thin gruel is all we've got thanks to the Obama campaign, which has done a swell job of keeping the truth a secret.

    Re: Does This Mean Anything? - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • However, if you are simply a Dem partisan who wanted the President to "lose" on this issue national security be damned, then this news is very thin gruel indeed since the President is still conducting the TSP, only this time with the additional benefit of being able to admit the evidence in court.

    Balkinization 2007

  • However, if you are simply a Dem partisan who wanted the President to "lose" on this issue national security be damned, then this news is very thin gruel indeed since the President is still conducting the TSP, only this time with the additional benefit of being able to admit the evidence in court.

    Balkinization 2007

  • However, if you are simply a Dem partisan who wanted the President to "lose" on this issue national security be damned, then this news is very thin gruel indeed since the President is still conducting the TSP, only this time with the additional benefit of being able to admit the evidence in court.

    Balkinization 2007

  • However, if you are simply a Dem partisan who wanted the President to "lose" on this issue national security be damned, then this news is very thin gruel indeed since the President is still conducting the TSP, only this time with the additional benefit of being able to admit the evidence in court.

    Balkinization 2007

  • However, if you are simply a Dem partisan who wanted the President to "lose" on this issue national security be damned, then this news is very thin gruel indeed since the President is still conducting the TSP, only this time with the additional benefit of being able to admit the evidence in court.

    Balkinization 2007

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