gruel

Meanings

Noun

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

Verb

• To exhaust; use up; disable; to punish.

Origin

• From Middle English gruel, gruwel, greuel, growel, from Old French gruel ("coarse meal; > French {{m")}}, 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.