Word
porridge
Phoneticspor·ridge
US/ˈpɔɹədʒ/
UK/pˈɒɹɪdʒ/
Definitions
01breakfast food
n. a hot breakfast food made by boiling oats or other grains in milk or water until they are thick and soft.
n. a dish consisting of oatmeal or another cereal boiled in water or milk to a thick, creamy consistency.
“She likes to eat a warm bowl of porridge with honey on cold winter mornings.”
“The traditional recipe calls for steel-cut oats to be simmered slowly in milk until the porridge achieves a perfectly smooth texture.”
Synonyms
02prison sentence
n. a slang term for time spent in prison.
n. a term of imprisonment; typically used in the phrase 'doing porridge'.
“He had to do three years of porridge for his role in the robbery.”
“After serving five years of porridge, the former inmate struggled to adapt to the rapid technological changes in the outside world.”
British English · Slang · Informal
Usage
Commonly used with the verb 'do' as in 'doing porridge'.
Teaching tip
This is a very specific British idiom; learners should be aware it sounds dated or highly informal outside of the UK.
Synonyms
Etymology
Variant of pottage (“thick soup or stew”), influenced by porray (“stew of leeks”). The "prison sentence" sense comes from the British tradition of serving prisoners porridge for breakfast.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Idioms
do porridge — Synonym of do time.
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/porridge