Grub, s. A small worm that eats holes in bodies; a thick short man.
Gruel, s. Food made by boiling oatmeal in water.
Gruel is a useful drink for horses on many occasions, and, when made carefully, sweetened with treacle or sugar, and sometimes seasoned with salt, they will often drink it, and save the trouble of drenching. It is a good vehicle for such medicines as are of a stimulating or acrimonious nature, such as oil of turpentine. Gruel is made either with oatmeal or grits, barley meal or pearl barley, fine wheat flour or arrow root; it may be made also with sago, salep or tapioca; either of these to be boiled in water, and, for some purposes, in milk and broth.
Gruel is often made merely by stirring some oatmeal into warm water, but it is better when boiled: and when grits or pearl barley are employed, it should be boiled a short time, and the first water thrown away; the gruel will then be free from an unpleasant taste which these substances contract by keeping: when they are first crushed or bruised, the gruel is richer, and more expeditiously made. Gruel is a useful restorative for weak or convalescent horses, being very nutritious and easy of digestion; perhaps nothing is more nutritious than wheat flour gruel made with milk and sweetened with sugar. In India it is a common practice to give horses strong broths, thickened with grain or flour, and seasoned with pepper or other spices, when they work hard, or as a restorative cordial. Infusion of malt makes a good nutritive drink for horses; but good sweet grits make an excellent gruel. Oatmeal is sometimes musty, and gruel made with it has often some degree of bitterness. When gruel is given as a cordial restorative after hard work, a little beer and ginger may, on some occasions, be added. Horses are very nice in their drinking, therefore the gruel should be made in a clean saucepan, free from the smell of meat, smoke, or fat. For some purposes, or where it is inconvenient to boil the gruel, a little oat, barley, or wheat meal, may be stirred into warm or cold water. This in Ireland is termed a white drink.—White.
Grunt, v. To murmur like a hog.
Grunter, s. A kind of fish.
Guaiacum, s. A physical wood; lignum vitæ.
A resinous looking substance, extracted from a very dense wood of a tree growing in the West Indies, called Guaiacum officinale. It is little used in veterinary prescriptions.—Ure.
Gudgeon, s. A small fish of the carp kind, found in brooks and rivers.
Guernsey Partridge (Perdrix rufa, Ray), s.