gruel

That sort of bad art is thin gruel compared to really bad art: works that are ethically perverse, immoral or debauched.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026

It became something closer to porridge, or gruel, which delighted me.

From Salon ● Jul. 14, 2026

Gregor Townsend gave something of a party political broadcast on behalf of the positivity party in the aftermath, a promise of jam tomorrow after gruel today.

From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2026

By historical standards that’s pretty thin gruel, and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says it even might overstate job creation.

From MarketWatch ● Dec. 15, 2025

In place of gruel and stale bread and rotten meat, the usual dungeon fare, his keepers brought him fresh-caught fish, bread still warm from the oven, spiced mutton, turnips, carrots, even crabs.

From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin

Agriculture softened our ancestors’ diets with processed gruels, stews and yogurts, and this fare led to gradually shrinking lower jaws to produce today’s overcrowded mouths.”

From Fox News ● Mar. 18, 2019

Few had ever received Red Cross packages; their guards, almost to a man, had engaged in graft which cut prison fare to watery soups, half-spoiled vegetables, and chalky gruels.

From Time Magazine Archive

The diet should be liquid, such as milk, beef tea, soups, and gruels.

From The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI) by Kenelm Winslow

Such patients, then, if they become much run down in weight, must be fed on milk and eggs and ice cream and the gruels and soups until they gain in weight.

From Psychotherapy by James J. (James Joseph) Walsh

The diet should consist of milk, broths, or thin gruels, and plenty of water should be allowed.

From The Home Medical Library, Volume I (of VI) by Kenelm Winslow