| 释义 |
ˈwater-ˌgruel
1. Thin gruel made with water instead of milk.
14..Rules & Const. Nuns Syon lvi. in Aungier Syon (1840) 393 On water dayes sche schal ordeyne for bonnes or newe brede, water grewel. 1589R. Harvey Pl. Perc. Ded., Like a whelp that had scalded his mouth with lapping vp hotte water Grewell. 1667Wood Life (O.H.S.) II. 100, 5s. for currans and raisons, oatmell, sugar, and pruans, to make water gruell. 1705E. Ward Hud. Rediv. iv. 8 So have I seen..A sick Man sipping Water-Gruel. 1782F. Burney Cecilia ix. iv, Breakfast on water-gruel. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xli, She was glad to acquiesce, and even to go to bed, and drink water-gruel. 1852J. Savory Dom. Med. (ed. 4) 310 Water Gruel. Put a large spoonful of oatmeal, or fine Indian meal, by degrees into a pint of water, and when smooth, boil it.
attrib.1871A. Meadows Midwifery (ed. 2) 170 The old-fashioned tea and water-gruel system has, it is to be hoped, long since ceased to be.
†2. fig. as the type of what is insipid. Chiefly attrib. (quasi-adj.), namby-pamby, characterless.
c1613Middleton No Wit like Woman's ii. iii, Though he [a wooer] have thousands, And come with a poor Water-gruel spirit,..he shall ne'r speed. 1703Motteux Prol. to Farquhar's Inconstant 14 Your scenes of love, so flowing, soft, and chaste, Are water-gruel, without salt or taste. 1753Foote Englishm. in Paris i. i, Their water-gruel jaws sunk in a thicket of curls, appear for all the world like a lark in a soup-dish! 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 430 Had I continued it [fasting] till this time, I believe my chapters would have dissolved into a water-gruel style. 1784R. Bage Barham Downs II. 129 A pretty, sweet, smiling, flexible, insipid, water-gruel girl. 1811L. M. Hawkins C'tess & Gertr. I. 76 His wife, a mere water-gruel character.
Hence † water-gruellish a.
1812Lady S. Lyttelton Let. 28 Apr. Corr. v. (1912) 132, I was of the greatest use in putting in a water-gruellish sort of observation every now and then, just to fill up the pauses. |