gruel

Etymology 1

From Middle English gruel, gruwel, greuel, growel (“meal or flour made from beans, lentils, etc.”), from Old French gruel (“coarse meal; > French gruau”), 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.

noun

1. A thin, watery porridge, formerly eaten primarily by the poor and the ill.
2. punishment
3. something that lacks substance
   thin gruel
4. (slang, US, obsolete) sentimental poetry
5. (slang, Britain) semen

Etymology 2

From the noun above.

verb

1. (transitive) To exhaust, use up, disable
2. (transitive) to punish
3. (slang, Britain) ejaculate