porridge
Americannoun
noun
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a dish made from oatmeal or another cereal, cooked in water or milk to a thick consistency
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slang a term in prison (esp in the phrase do porridge )
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of porridge
1525–35; variant of earlier poddidge, akin to pottage
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How does porridge compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
Porridge is a thick, warm type of food similar to oatmeal. It's often a breakfast food. When you boil oats in milk or water, the end result of porridge. Porridge is served in a bowl and eaten with a spoon. It’s usually served for breakfast and is famous for appearing in the fairy tale of Goldilocks. Porridge is the food that's too hot, too cold, and then just right.
Vocabulary lists containing porridge
"The Tempest," Vocabulary from Acts 1 and 2
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Sideways Stories from Wayside School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Without energy exposure, it can put you right off your porridge.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 8, 2026
Somsak Jaidee, 62, who sells rice porridge in bags secured with rubber bands at a Bangkok market, said that while "everything is more expensive... I have to endure it."
From Barron's ● Jun. 28, 2026
The finished khichuri should have a consistency similar to porridge.
From Salon ● Jun. 7, 2026
Pupils who regularly attend the club all praised the food, which includes cereal, toast and porridge, and said they had benefitted from scheme.
From BBC ● Apr. 13, 2026
At the door of a cottage I saw a little girl about to throw a mess of cold porridge into a pig trough.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
Hygiene products like wet wipes, gels, soaps, toothpastes and porridges are also flying off the shelves in Poland, according to drugstore chain Rossmann.
From Reuters ● Mar. 16, 2022
She learns to cook the kimchi, stews and porridges she grew up with, finding traces of her mother in the rice cakes and dumpling skins within this supermarket.
From New York Times ● Apr. 30, 2021
Because polenta and grits are both cornmeal porridges, it seemed a fun and tasty way to take the Italian-Southern food connection a bit further.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 5, 2019
Jenn Louis sometimes serves savory porridges at Ray, her Israeli-inspired restaurant in Portland, Ore., and she includes a Thai-style coconut-milk rice congee in her latest cookbook, “The Book of Greens.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 5, 2018
Mama was always cooking up nourishing broths and porridges for forgotten old men and pale young mothers—on days, that is, when she herself was strong enough to stand at the stove.
From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
