Porridge

//ˈpɒɹ.ɪd͡ʒ// noun, slang

noun, slang ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A dish made of grain or legumes, milk or water, heated and stirred until thick and typically eaten for breakfast. uncountable, usually

    "Eat your porridge while it's hot!"

  2. 2
    soft food made by boiling oatmeal or other meal or legumes in water or milk until thick wordnet
  3. 3
    A dish made of grain or legumes, milk or water, heated and stirred until thick and typically eaten for breakfast.; Oat porridge; oatmeal. British, uncountable, usually
  4. 4
    A dish made of grain or legumes, milk or water, heated and stirred until thick and typically eaten for breakfast.; Rice porridge; congee. Malaysia, Singapore, uncountable, usually
  5. 5
    A prison sentence. British, slang, uncountable, usually

    "Just do your porridge and keep your head down."

Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    A type of thick soup or stew, especially thickened with barley. rare, uncountable, usually

Synonyms

All synonyms
albumenbatterbinbirdbirdbonnyclabber

Example

More examples

"Miss Pizza and Mr Porridge were walking in the woods."

Etymology

Variant of pottage (“thick soup or stew”), influenced by porray (“stew of leeks”). The "prison sentence" sense comes from the British tradition of serving prisoners porridge for breakfast.

Related phrases

Laba porridgeTeochew porridgedo porridgekeep one's breath to cool one's porridgepease porridgepine nut porridgeplain as porridgeplum-porridgeporridge bellyporridge drawerporridge potporridge time

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.