What does gruel mean?

Definitions for gruel
ˈgru əlgru·el

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word gruel.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. gruelnoun

    a thin porridge (usually oatmeal or cornmeal)

Wiktionary

  1. gruelnoun

    A thin, watery porridge.

Samuel Johnson's Dictionary

  1. Gruelnoun

    Food made by boiling oatmeal in water; any kind of mixture made by boiling ingredients in water.

    Etymology: gruau, gruelle, French.

    Finger of birth-strangl’d babe,
    Ditch-deliver’d by a drab;
    Make the gruel thick and slab. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

    Was ever Tartar fierce or cruel
    Upon the strength of water gruel? Matthew Prior.

    Gruel made of grain, broths, malt-drink not much hopped, posset-drinks, and in general whatever relaxeth. Arbuthnot.

Wikipedia

  1. Gruel

    Gruel is a food consisting of some type of cereal—such as ground oats, wheat, rye, or rice—heated or boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk rather than eaten. Historically, gruel has been a staple of the Western diet, especially for peasants. Gruel may be made from millet, hemp, barley, or, in hard times, from chestnut flour or even the less bitter acorns of some oaks. Gruel has historically been associated with feeding the sick and recently weaned children. Gruel is also a colloquial expression for any watery food of unknown character, e.g., pea soup. Gruel has often been associated with poverty, with negative associations attached to the term in popular culture, as in Charles Dickens novels Oliver Twist, and A Christmas Carol.

ChatGPT

  1. gruel

    Gruel is a thin, often bland, cooked cereal or grain dish, typically made by boiling grains such as oatmeal or rice in milk or water. It is often served to infants, sick people, or individuals with difficulty swallowing as it is easy to digest.

Webster Dictionary

  1. Gruelnoun

    a light, liquid food, made by boiling meal of maize, oatmeal, or fiour in water or milk; thin porridge

  2. Etymology: [OF. gruel, F. gruau; of German origin; cf. OHG. gruzzi groats, G. grtze, As. grt. See Grout.]

Wikidata

  1. Gruel

    Gruel is a type of food consisting of some type of cereal—oat, wheat or rye flour, or rice—boiled in water or milk. It is a thinner version of porridge that may be more often drunk than eaten and may not need to be cooked. Historically, gruel—often made from millet, hemp or barley, or in hard times, of chestnut flour and even the less tannic acorns of some oaks—has been a staple of the Western diet, especially for peasants. The importance of gruel as a form of sustenance is especially noted for invalids and for recently weaned children. Hot malted milk is a form of gruel, although manufacturers like Ovaltine and Horlicks avoid calling it gruel, due to the negative associations attached to the word through popular culture like Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist. From a literary, bourgeois, or modern point of view, gruel has often been associated with poverty. Gruel is a colloquial expression of any watery or liquidy food that is of unknown character, e.g., pea soup; soup is derived from sop, the slice of bread which was soaked with broth or thin gruel.

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary

  1. Gruel

    grōō′el, n. a thin food made by boiling oatmeal in water. [O. Fr. gruel (Fr. gruau), groats—Low L. grutellum, dim. of grutum, meal—Old Low Ger. grut, groats, A.S. grút.]

Surnames Frequency by Census Records

  1. GRUEL

    According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Gruel is ranked #47186 in terms of the most common surnames in America.

    The Gruel surname appeared 450 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Gruel.

    87.5% or 394 total occurrences were White.
    5.5% or 25 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
    2.6% or 12 total occurrences were Black.
    2.6% or 12 total occurrences were of two or more races.
    1.5% or 7 total occurrences were Asian.

Matched Categories

Anagrams for gruel »

  1. luger

  2. Luger

  3. gluer

How to pronounce gruel?

How to say gruel in sign language?

Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of gruel in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of gruel in Pythagorean Numerology is: 9

Examples of gruel in a Sentence

  1. Robert Driscoll:

    I think that for a woman who's been under surveillance for the better part of two years, it's pretty thin gruel to find a two-year-old... message, and say that that proves she's a spy. Most spies do things. She didn't seek nuclear submarine plans, she didn't try to recruit any agents, she didn't pay anyone any money.

Popularity rank by frequency of use

gruel#100000#111268#333333

Translations for gruel

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"gruel." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 19 Mar. 2024. <https://www.definitions.net/definition/gruel>.

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    out of condition; not strong or robust; incapable of exertion or endurance
    A dicotyledonous
    B repugnant
    C inexpiable
    D flabby

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