▪ I. gruel, n.
(ˈgruːəl)
Forms: 4 gruwel, 4–5 growel, -ell(e, 4–6 grewel, 4–7 gruell, 5 grewylle, grwel, -el(l)e, gruelle, ? gravelle, 5– gruel.
[a. OF. gruel (12th c. in Littré), mod.F. gruau ground grain, flour, gruel, for *grueau, gruyau:—med.L. *grūtellum, dim. of grūtum of Teut. origin: cf. OE. gr{uacu}t grout.]
1. Fine flour, meal, or other farinaceous substance. Obs. or dial.
| [1311 in Charters, etc. Priory Finchale (Surtees) p. iv, De gruell' sufficientia usque Pascham.] c 1330 [see 5 below]. 14.. Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker 740/31 Hec polenta, grewylle. 1544 T. Phaer Regim. Life (1553) H v b, It is good to vse grewel, clene barley [etc.]. 1847–78 Halliwell, Gruel, same as Grudgings. |
2. A light, liquid food (chiefly used as an article of diet for invalids) made by boiling oatmeal (or occas. some other farinaceous subtance) in water or milk, sometimes with the addition of other ingredients, as butter, sugar, spices, onions, etc. Grantham gruel (see quot. 1818). See also water-gruel.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. vii. 169 A bolleful of gruwel. c 1400 tr. Lanfranc's Cirurg. 13 He schal ete for his mete growel maad of otemele, eiþir of barli mele wiþ almaundis. c 1450 ME. Med. Bk. (Heinrich) 77 Take otenmele & cow mylke and make grewel. 1514 Barclay Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (Percy Soc.) 3 Sethynge some grewell & sterynge the pulment Of peese or frument. 1551 Turner Herbal i. L iv, Beane of Egypt..is good..taken wyth beane mele after the maner of grewelle. 1611 Cotgr., Orgée, barlie gruell. 1634 J. Taylor (Water P.) Gt. Eater Kent 12 His appetite..neuer..needed the assistance of cawdle, iulep, alebery, cullise, grewell, or stewd-broth. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 82/2 Grewel, is a kind of Broth made only of Water, Grotes brused and Currans, some add Mace, sweet Herbs, Butter and Eggs and Sugar: some call it Pottage Gruel. 1728 Young Love Fame v. Wks. (1757) 123 Cooling gruel, and composing tea. 1791 W. Nicholson tr. Chaptal's Elem. Chem. (1800) III. 102 The Icelanders obtain a very delicate gruel with the fecula of the lichen Icelandicus. 1815 Jane Austen Emma i. xii, A basin of nice smooth gruel, thin but not too thin. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xxix, Thou wilt get naething at night save Grantham gruel, nine grots and a gallon of water. 1869 J. Martineau Ess. II. 28 A sinful preference of roast mutton over gruel. |
| transf. 1605 Shakes. Macb. iv. i. 32 Make the Grewell thicke, and slab. 1842 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. 11. St. Medard, And he hurl'd it straight At the Saint's bald pate, To knock out ‘the gruel he call'd his brains’. |
| Prov. c 1374 Chaucer Troylus iii. 662 (711) So thriue I this nyght shal I make it wel, Or casten al þe Growel in þe fyre. |
† 3. Broth or pottage of oatmeal in which chopped meat has been boiled. Commonly gruel forced (aforced, enforced), gruel (of) force, or gruel of beef, etc. Similarly gruel of almonds. Obs.
| ? c 1390 Form of Cury (1780) 12 For to make grewel forced. Take grewel, and do to the fyre with gode flessh, and seeþ it well. 14.. Noble Bk. Cookry (1882) 88 To mak grewelle enforced tak mary bones and freche brothe and mak grewelle and draw them throughe a strener, then tak [etc.]. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 14 Gruel of Almondes. Take almondes unblanchid and bray hom sone, Put ote mele to..And grynde alle sammen. Ibid. 20 Gruel of Porke. Ibid. 47 For gruel of fors. Fyrst take porke, wele þou hit sethe With otene grotes. c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. 6 Gruelle a-forsydde. c 1450 Ibid. 70 Growelle fforce. Take Growell y-made of ffresh beef. c 1460 J. Russell Bk. Nurture 519 Growelle of force Gravelle of beeff or motoun, haue ye no care. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. 273 Tansey is good, hote wortes, or gruell of befe or of motton is good. 1552 Huloet, Grewell, forced or stewed broth, offella. 1565 Cooper Thesaurus, Pulmentaris cibus, chopped meate made with pottage or broth: forced gruell. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 63 If a thicke grewell or sew be made thereof,..it cureth the pleurisie or paines of the sides. |
4. Phr. to have or get one's gruel: to receive one's punishment, to get killed. So to take one's gruel, to give (a person) his gruel. colloq.
| 1797 M. Robinson Walsingham IV. 26 My pupil talked of nothing but of returning to Devizes, to ‘give the ostler his gruel’ for having taken him in. 1815 Scott Guy M. xxviii, He gathered..that they expressed great indignation against some individual. ‘He shall have his gruel’, said one. 1823 Byron Juan xi. xvi, I've got my gruel! 1851 Kingsley Yeast viii, They've done for me, Paul. Old Harry's got his gruel. 1898 Doyle Trag. Korosko 192 What have we to hope for? We may just as well take our gruel. |
5. attrib., as gruel-dish, gruel-meal, gruel-pot, gruel-sieve; gruel-tree dial. (see quot.).
| c 1330 Durham Acc. Rolls 525 In iij cribris empt. pro granario et uno Growell seue et 1 Colour pro pistrina. 14.. in Rel. Ant. I. 82 He fell doun..into a gruell potte. Ibid. 83 These iij kyngus ete but of wone gruell dysche. 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. V, cccxlvi, 'Tis a strange Gutt, that for a Gruell Meale Resigns her Birthright. 1825–80 Jamieson, Gruel-tree, the stick used for stirring the porridge. |
▪ II. gruel, v.
(ˈgruːəl)
[f. gruel n.]
1. trans. To exhaust or disable; to ‘punish’. (Cf. gruel n. 4.)
| 1850 Kingsley Alt. Locke xii, Wadham ran up by the side of that first Trinity yesterday, and he said that they were as well gruelled as so many posters, before they got to the stile. 1877 Punch 24 Mar. 129 The Crews were drinking each other's healths, in the vain attempt of each to gruel the other before the race. |
2. nonce-use. To feed with gruel.
| 1804 tr. La Marteliere's Three Gil Blas I. 69 You see..a man who has been confined to his bed a fortnight, consequently well plaistered and gruelled. 1892 Longm. Mag. July 319, I had better halt and gruel my exhausted mount. |