gruel

American  

[groo-uhl] / ˈgru əl /

noun

1. a light, usually thin, cooked cereal made by boiling meal, especially oatmeal, in water or milk.

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gruel British  

/ ˈɡruːəl /

noun

1. a drink or thin porridge, made by boiling meal, esp oatmeal, in water or milk

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Etymology

Origin of gruel

First recorded in 1275–1325; Middle English, from Middle French, Old French, perhaps via an intermediary such as Medieval Latin grūtellum (unrecorded), from grūtum “flour, meal” (from a Germanic source akin to German Grütze “ground cereal grains”; grits, grout ) + -ellum, diminutive suffix

Compare meaning

How does gruel compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:

• gruel vs. porridge

Explanation

Gruel is a truly unpleasant food — weak and runny, consisting of oatmeal or cornmeal boiled in milk or water. It's the kind of "slop" prisoners and other inmates of institutions were historically forced to eat. Gruel was made most famous by Dickens's Oliver Twist, the little orphan boy in the workhouse, who was so hungry he even asked for seconds of it: "Please sir, I want some more." Gruel's reputation, not great to begin with, never recovered. From this delightful substance comes the adjective grueling, describing an experience that's exhausting and punishing. "To get one's gruel" was 1700s slang meaning "to receive one's punishment." Even back then gruel had a bad rap.

Example Sentences

But in terms of its actual content, the statement was pretty thin gruel, bristling with public relations-style circumlocution and vagueness.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 27, 2026

By historical standards that’s pretty thin gruel, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says it even might overstate job creation.

From MarketWatch • Dec. 15, 2025

“The market had expected a confident story of further margin development and was instead served a thin gruel as far as 2030 guidance was concerned.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025

Thin gruel in the grand scheme of post truth, maybe, but still instructive and illuminating in the extreme.

From Slate • Aug. 8, 2022

Billy coughed when the door was opened, and when he coughed he shit thin gruel.

From "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut