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Gruel is a porridge-type food made from boiling cereal in water or milk. To say that gruel has developed something of a bad name in recent times is an understatement.

A staple for poverty-stricken proletarians not 200 years ago, the word "gruel" is now used to describe things that are lacking substance. To assert that someone's argument is "as thin as gruel" is to openly mock the foundation of their belief. In a popular Charles Dickens story, a young orphan named Oliver Twist is so famished after eating a full serving of gruel that he risks extraordinary retaliation when he approaches the heavy-handed parish beadle to request a second serving.

Furthermore, gruel is commonly considered to be so loathsome that it would actually be torture to be required to eat some. "To get one's gruel" is a common British saying that means "to get one's punishment." A parent whose child is refusing to eat the food given them might be threatened with gruel. To move at a grueling pace is to tax the body and otherwise punish oneself with physical exhaustion.

In its most liberal usage, "gruel" can be used to refer to any type of food that lacks a distinctive form or shape. In some parts of the eastern United States, the word "gruel" is used to refer to a yogurt and granola mixture.

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