porridge

porridge — noun

1. a thick hot dish of oats cooked with water or milk, often eaten at breakfast, or

1.名詞B2
釋義

a thick hot dish of oats cooked with water or milk, often eaten at breakfast, or a similar soft grain or bean dish

例句

On cold mornings, Eva cooks porridge before the children wake.

cook porridge for breakfast

A bowl of porridge kept Noah warm on the train.

pattern: a bowl of porridge

同義詞
  • oatmeal

    especially North American for porridge made from oats

  • congee

    a rice porridge, so it is narrower than porridge in this sense

  • gruel

    usually thinner and often suggests plain or unpleasant food

文法句型

eat porridge

cook porridge

a bowl of porridge

用法筆記

Usually uncountable. Often used for oat porridge eaten hot at breakfast, but it can also name similar thick dishes made from rice, corn, or beans.

常見錯誤

❌I ate a porridge before school.
✅I ate porridge before school.
💡Use porridge as an uncountable noun for the food; say a bowl of porridge if you need a countable phrase.

2. time that a person has to live in prison

2.名詞C1
釋義

time that a person has to live in prison

例句

Jake did six months' porridge after stealing bikes from the station.

informal British pattern: do porridge

The older boys joked that Max would get porridge again.

pattern: get porridge

同義詞
  • imprisonment

    more formal and used in legal or official writing

  • jail time

    informal, especially in North American English

  • prison time

    a plain modern phrase without the slang tone of porridge

反義詞
  • freedom

    the state of being out of prison

  • release

    the act of being let out of prison

文法句型

do porridge

get porridge

years of porridge

用法筆記

Usually appears after verbs like do, get, or mean, or after expressions like years of. Distinguish it from sentence, which names the court's punishment rather than the time inside prison.

常見錯誤

❌He got a porridge for robbery.
✅He got porridge for robbery.
💡In this slang sense, porridge is usually uncountable.