Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use gruel in a sentence

19 example sentences · noun, verb

Gruel means a thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill. Example: “The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.”

Examples of gruel by meaning

nounA thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.

  • “The foundlings rarely have to share blankets these days, and the gruel no longer has a consistency thinner than water.2011, Jasper Fforde, Song of the Quarkbeast

More sentences with gruel

  • The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.From the entry reach
  • The bassoonist settled into the anechoic chamber and prepared for another grueling recording session.From the entry anechoic
  • We have worked crazily long hours and it has been gruelling, exhausting.2020 December 2, Andy Byford talks to Paul Clifton, “I enjoy really big challenges...”, in Rail, page 50. From the entry crazily
  • It was grim and set, a person nerving up for the last of a grueling hike.2015, Elizabeth Lowell [pseudonym; Ann Maxwell], chapter 24, in Perfect Touch, New York, N.Y.: William Morrow, →ISBN, page 290. From the entry nerve up
  • Medical school, internship, and residency had been physically and emotionally grueling.2010, Siddhartha Mukherjee, The Emperor of All Maladies, Fourth Estate (2011), page 4. From the entry grueling
  • After four grueling laps, the race had come down to a sprint.2009, Robert Newton, Runner, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 191. From the entry straight
  • He had finished long hours of grueling exercise cutting longgrass by hand.2003, M. Daily, The Seed, →ISBN, page 64. From the entry longgrass
  • This grueling sport can go on for many hours, though the winner is always the pokie machine.2000, Ken Ewell, No Worries, Mate: A Manly Adventure in the Land Down Under, page 68. From the entry pokie machine
  • The sounds can be grueling, especially if you are a sonophobe.2000, Christina Peterson, The Women's Migraine Survival Guide: The Most Complete, Up-To-Date Resource on the Causes of Your Migraine Pain…. From the entry sonophobe
  • Producing a second batch is easier if she skips the last grueling week or two of provisioning fledglings.2020, Laura Erickson, The Love Lives of Birds: Courting and Mating Rituals, North Adams, M.A.: Storey Publishing, →ISBN, page 81. From the entry a
  • She ate the food a priestess brought her – it was just gruel, but it didn’t have any poison.2016 September 13, Beth Goobie, chapter 11, in The Pain Eater, Toronto, Ont.: Second Story Press, published 2017, →ISBN, page 132. From the entry life's a bitch, and then you die
  • The dungeon master slid a water cup and two bowls of gruel through the grating at the floor.2010, Andrew J. Peters, “The Vain Prince”, in Radclyffe [pseudonym; Lenora Ruth Barot], Stacia Seaman, editors, Myth & Magic: Queer Fairy…. From the entry dungeon master
  • Since then, they had been ekeing out the last dusty contents of a sack of oats, watered down and cooked to make a sloppy gruel.2013, Meriel Fuller, chapter 1, in The Knight’s Fugitive Lady (Harlequin Historical; 370), Don Mills, Ont.: Harlequin Enterprises, →ISBN…. From the entry eke out
  • Since the days of the Tarascans, the corn-loving folks of Michoacan have enjoyed atole, a maize-based gruel flavored with chocolate, fruit, tamarind, or herbs.2006 January 13, David Hammond, “Beyond the Burrito, Part 2: Michoacan”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry atole
  • Now Yining is under its own grueling, weekslong pandemic lockdown, with residents calling for help over limited food, difficulty getting medicines and drastic shortages of sanitary pads for women.2022 September 11, Chris Buckley, “Just Bread and Noodles: China’s Covid Lockdown Distress Hits Xinjiang”, in The New York Times, →ISSN…. From the entry weekslong
  • Raymond Carver had only moments late at night to write after grueling day jobs, tense relationships, putting kids to bed, and dealing with his own alcoholism.2016, JoAnneh Nagler, How to be an artist without losing your mind, your shirt, or your creative compass, →ISBN, page 85. From the entry anyway
  • It's the kind of Oliver Twistian advice given frequently to blacks deemed middle class: be grateful for the gruel because children are starving in the inner cities.1995, Patricia J. Williams, The Rooster's Egg, page 89. From the entry Twistian
  • Breakfast was served at 8am and sometimes consisted of skillygalee, a sort of oatmeal gruel prepared in fatty water and which by the time of Trafalgar included butter and sugar.2005, Gregory Fremont-Barnes, Steve Noon, Nelson's Sailors, Osprey Publishing, page 24. From the entry skillygalee

Meaning of gruel

  1. noun A thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.
  2. noun Punishment.
  3. noun Something that lacks substance.

Full definition of gruel

Questions about gruel in a sentence

How do you use gruel in a sentence?
Gruel is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The climbers reached the top of the mountain after a gruelling ten-day hike.”
What is a short sentence with gruel?
“Medical school, internship, and residency had been physically and emotionally grueling.”
What does gruel mean?
Gruel means a thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: gruel (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use gruel in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/gruel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.