Questions about example sentences with, and the definition and usage of "Gruel"

A: gruel is a type of oatmeal, unless you meant "cruel" in which case that would mean "mean"

A: Gruel consists of oat, wheat, rye flour, rice (etc) boiled in water or milk and is basically a thinner version of porridge that can for example be drunk.

A: @lijieqiong28: gruel is food, normally referring to porridge, but in a negative way.
"they served us gruel" vs "they served us porridge" . thr first sentence can show the food as being negative/ disgusting/ horrible/ tasteless, whereas the second just refers to the food porridge being served - as to thr description of thr porridge, adjectives are needed whereas in gruel, its almost like the noun is self-descriptive