gruel
/ˈɡɹuːəl/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
also/ɡɹuːl/
gruel noun: a thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.
Noun
gruel (countable and uncountable, plural gruels)
- 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.1816, Jane Austen, Emma
- […]Father had one of his awful colds, so Dora persuaded him not to go to London, but to stay cosy and warm in the study, and she made him some gruel. She makes it better than Eliza does; Eliza's gruel is all little lumps, and when you suck them it is dry oatmeal inside.1899, E. Nesbit, The Story of the Treasure Seekers
- Punishment.
- Synonyms:
- castigation, punition, chastening, chastisement, correction, punishment
- Something that lacks substance.
- thin gruel
- Sentimental poetry.
- Semen.
- Synonyms:
- ejaculate, spunk, baby batter, baby gravy, balljuice, boy juice, cock juice, cock snot, come, cream
Verb
gruel (third-person singular simple present gruels, present participle (US) grueling or (UK) gruelling, simple past and past participle (US) grueled or (UK) gruelled)
gruel meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Telugu
gruel in Tamil
- கஞ்சி
gruel in Urdu
- دلیہ, سخت امتحان لینا
gruel in Bengali
- thin watery porridge
- মণ্ড monḍo
gruel in Telugu
- gruel, porridge, conjee
- జావ jāva
More languagesFewer languages
- gruel in Malayalam
- കഞ്ഞി, കാടി, കൂഴ്
- gruel in Kannada
- ಗಂಜಿ, ಅಂಬಲಿ, ಅಂಬಲ, ಅಂಬಿಲ
- gruel in Indonesian
- bubur
- gruel in Thai
- ข้าวต้ม kâao-dtôm
- gruel in Vietnamese
- cháo đặc
Examples of gruel in a sentence
- The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.
- The bassoonist settled into the anechoic chamber and prepared for another grueling recording session.
- We have worked crazily long hours and it has been gruelling, exhausting.
Synonyms of gruel
- castigation
- punition
- chastening
- chastisement
- correction
- punishment
- ejaculate
- spunk
- baby batter
- baby gravy
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of gruel
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | gruels |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | gruels |
| present participle US | grueling |
| present participle UK | gruelling |
| past participle US | grueled |
| past US | grueled |
| past participle UK | gruelled |
| past UK | gruelled |
Origin of gruel
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.
From the noun above.
Words formed from gruel
- cold gruel
- get one's gruel
- give someone his gruel
- give someone their gruel
- gruelly
- water gruel
- gruelling
Phrases with gruel
Words that rhyme with gruel
Questions about gruel
- What does gruel mean?
- Gruel means a thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.
- What is gruel in Tamil?
- Gruel in Tamil is கஞ்சி. See Gruel meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is gruel?
- Gruel can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce gruel?
- Gruel is pronounced /ˈɡɹuːəl/.
- What is the plural of gruel?
- The plural of gruel is gruels.
Words near gruel in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gruel (page history and authors); gruel (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gruel (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); జావ (Telugu) (page history and authors); gruel (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); gruel (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gruel.wav.
Cite this entry: “gruel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gruel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.