Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to be punished.

1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 149: They expressed great indignation against some individual. ‘He shall have his gruel,’ – said one, and then whispered something very low.
1844		H. Christmas in Pegge Anecdotes of the Eng. Lang. 292: He’s got his gruel.
1852		Bell’s Life in Sydney 13 Nov. 1/3: I’ve got my gruel; and, after all, it is better than hanging.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 July 9/2: The football teams have had a match, / For us the thing is cruel / For Melbourne’s got a victory. / And Sydney’s got her gruel .
1889		H. Smart Long Odds I 16: ‘It’s no use,’ gasped the wounded man; ‘there’s nothing much to be done for me. I’ve got my gruel, and I know it’.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 13 Feb. 1/1: [He] tried (a sickly try) to smile the while he got his gruelling.
1907		D. Stewart Shadows of the Night in Illus. Police News 7 Sept. 12/1: [used of murder] ‘Have you wiped the young beggar out?’ ‘No, he ain’t got his gruel’.

to kill or defeat.

1797		M. Robinson Walsingham IV 26: My pupil talked of nothing but of returning to Devizes, to ‘give the ostler his gruel’ for having taken him in.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Babes in the Wood’ Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 190: Harsh language ensued, / Which ended at length in a duel / When he that was mildest in mood / Gave the truculent rascal his gruel.
1848		Bradford Obs. 27 Jan. 7: It’s a’most over; she has given him his gruel; and divil’s cure to him.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 148: gruel ‘to give a person his gruel,’ to kill him. An expression in all probability derived from the report of a trial for poisoning. Compare ‘to settle his hash,’ and ‘cook his goose’.
1869		New Sporting Mag. Mar. 213: I sing a song of Janawar, / Who terror spread both near and far; / A real tiger, fierce, and cruel, / And T—e and P—u who gave him his ‘gruel’.
1885		‘’Arry on the Elections’ Punch 12 Dec. 277/2: And I think I’ve give Gladstone his gruel, and bunnicked up Brummagem Joe.
1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 14 Sept. 1/1: Slavin has been matched against Goode. It will take a very good man indeed to give Paddy his gruel.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 32: Goose, to kill, as ‘cook his goose,’ ‘settle his hash,’ ‘give him his gruel’.

to receive and accept punishment.

1888		Sporting Life 15 Dec. in Farmer & Henley Slang and Its Analogues III 227/1: Preferred to be easily knocked out to taking his gruel like a man.
1896		A. Morrison Child of the Jago (1982) 193: Very well then, he would take his gruel like a man.
1896		Caulfield &Elsternwick Leader ( (North Brighton, Vic.) 9 May 2/7: Although he got the lion’s share [of punches] he appeared quite cool and took his gruel like an artist.
1898		(con. 1875) F.T. Bullen Cruise of the ‘Cachalot’ 71: I’ve seen a hundred ’n fifty bar’l whale lay ’n take his grooel ’thout hardly wunkin ’n eyelid.
1900		Sun. Times (Sydney) 5 Aug. 3/5: Tom took his gruel like a Trojan, and lasted the three minutes out.
1904		Marvel 12 Nov. 2: The others took their gruel in the form of penal servitude.
1912		Observer (Adelaide) 20 Jan. 5: Clem made a ‘'duck’ against the Englishmen on Friday. He took his gruel like the good sport he is, and offered no excuse.
1930		Sydney Spotsman 3 June 10/1: He used his head for other things than thought on occasions, but the Australian, the victim of prolonged rough stuff, took his gruel like a jewelled gloveman.