porridge
part of speech
noun (porridge — uncountable; a bowl of porridge)
meaning for a pupil
1) Porridge is a warm, soft food made by cooking oats (or other grain) in milk or water until thick. tree →
2) In British slang, «doing porridge» means being in prison — an old joke, not used at school. tree →
sense in the lessons
Everyday life: a common breakfast in the UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; in the USA it is usually called «oatmeal». In stories it is famous from «Goldilocks and the Three Bears», where one bowl is too hot, one too cold and one just right. In science lessons, cooking porridge shows how oats soak up water and swell when heated. Phrases: a bowl of porridge, porridge oats, porridge with honey.
examples
- I eat porridge with honey and banana on cold mornings. tree →
- Goldilocks tasted the porridge in all three bowls. tree →
- Stir the porridge so it does not stick to the pan. tree →
- Let the porridge cool a little before you eat it — it can burn your mouth. tree →
- In the USA my cousin calls porridge «oatmeal». tree →
- The oats soaked up the milk and the porridge became thick. tree →
- Grandad adds a pinch of salt to his porridge, the Scottish way. tree →
- “Somebody has been at my porridge!” tree →
note
Uncountable: «some porridge», «a bowl of porridge», not «a porridge» or «porridges». Hot porridge holds heat for a long time — blow and test a small spoonful first. US English: oatmeal; UK, Irish, Australian English: porridge.
In the corpora
- Next morning they come down very late and find two young hedgehogs eating porridge.
- Porridge, toast, cereal and fruit give steady energy before sport.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «porridge» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.