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Gruel

//ˈɡɹuːəl// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill. countable, uncountable

    "[…]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. 2
    a thin porridge (usually oatmeal or cornmeal) wordnet
  3. 3
    Punishment. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    Something that lacks substance. countable, uncountable

    "thin gruel"

  5. 5
    Sentimental poetry. US, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
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  1. 6
    Semen. British, countable, slang, uncountable
Verb
  1. 1
    To exhaust, use up, disable. transitive
  2. 2
    To punish. transitive
  3. 3
    Ejaculate. British, slang

Etymology

Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From the noun above.

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