Join free

gruel

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

gruel¹

  • /ˈɡɹuːəl/
  • /ɡɹuːl/ also
  • /ɡɹʊəl/

Rhymes with -uːəl, -uːl, -ʊəl

Where it comes from

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.

noun gruels

  1. countable, uncountable A thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill. […]her own cook at South End, a young woman hired for the time, who never had been able to understand what she meant by a basin of nice smooth gruel, thin, but not too thin.
  2. countable, uncountable Punishment.
  3. countable, uncountable Something that lacks substance. thin gruel
  4. US, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable Sentimental poetry.
  5. UK, countable, slang, uncountable Semen.

gruel²

Where it comes from

From the noun above.

verb gruels · grueling · gruelling · grueled · gruelled

  1. transitive To exhaust, use up, disable.
  2. transitive To punish.
  3. UK, slang Ejaculate.

Talk about this word