I. ˈmil noun
( -s )
Usage: often attributive
Etymology: Middle English mille, from Old English mylen; akin to Old High German mulī, mulin mill, Old Norse mylna; all from a prehistoric North Germanic-West Germanic word borrowed from Late Latin molina, molinum mill, from feminine and neuter of molinus of a mill, of a millstone, from Latin mola mill, millstone + -inus -ine; akin to Latin molere to grind — more at meal
1. : a building provided with machinery for grinding grain into flour
the never-failing brook, the busy mill — Oliver Goldsmith
mill sluice
the mill cannot grind with water that is past
2.
a. : a machine for grinding grain : quern
two shall be grinding at the mill — Mt 24:41 (Revised Standard Version)
b. : a machine for crushing or comminuting some substance
coffee mill
bone mill
curd mill
c. : machinery for the hulling, cleaning, scouring, and polishing of rice kernels
d. : a factory or a machine for reducing hay to meal suitable for poultry and other stock
3. : a machine that manufactures by the continuous repetition of some simple action
operating a stamp mill
a pulverizing mill
4. : a building or collection of buildings with machinery by which the processes of manufacturing are carried on
textile mill
fulling mill
paper mill
mill hands were laid off
5.
a. : a screw press formerly used for stamping coins that raised and marked or serrated the edge as it struck the coin
b. : a machine for expelling juice from vegetable tissues by pressure or grinding
cider mill
cane mill
c. : a machine for polishing
a lapidary mill
6. : an institution or office that turns out products in the manner of a factory or machine
diploma mill
propaganda mill
7.
[ mill (II) ]
a. : a mass of people or animals moving in a circle or without clear direction
turned the leaders of the stampede so as to form a mill
b. : a boxing match
c. : a folk-dance design usually formed by two couples in which each dancer joins right or left hands with the one diagonally opposite and all move in a circle to right or left — called also star, wagon wheel
8. : treadmill
9. Scotland : a snuffbox especially with apparatus for pulverizing tobacco
10.
a. : a slow or laborious process or routine
legislative mill
b. : an experience or process that has a marked effect (as of hardening, disciplining, disillusioning) on the character or personality — usually used in the phrase through the mill
through the mill of higher education
11.
a. : a hardened steel roller having a design in relief used for imprinting a reversed copy of the design in a softer metal (as copper)
b. : milling machine , milling cutter
12. : morris II — used with the
13. slang
a. : the engine of an automobile or boat
b. : typewriter
II. verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
transitive verb
1. : to subject to some operation or process in a mill : shape or finish by means of a mill or machine: as
a. : to full (cloth) in a fulling mill
b. : to grind into flour, meal, or powder
c. : to hull (seeds) by using a mill
d. : to shape or dress (as metal) by means of a rotary cutter : to make (as a key seat) with such a cutter
e. : to stamp (a coin) in a screw press
f. : to pass (soap chips) through a roller mill in the manufacture of toilet soap or soap flakes
French milled soap
g. : to mix and condition (as rubber) by passing between rotating rolls
h. : to roll (as steel) into bars
i. : to crush or grind (ore) in a mill
2. : to give a raised rim to (a coin) by a machine operation on the coin blank before striking
3. : to make frothy by churning or whipping
mill chocolate
4. : to beat with the fists : thrash , slug
5. : to turn or guide (as cattle) into a circular course
6.
a. : to make ridges or corrugations on the edge of (a coin) by pressure against a corrugated collar at the time of striking
b. : to cut grooves or crosshatching in the metal surface of (a knob or a finger nut) to aid gripping : knurl
7. : to saw and dress (timber) in a sawmill
intransitive verb
1. : to hit out with the fists ; especially : to slug furiously
the match was mostly rough-and-tumble milling
2.
a. of cattle : to move or stampede in a circle
b. : to move in an eddying or disorderly mass
rioters milling about in the streets
crowd milling in the theater lobby
3. of a whale : to swim suddenly in a new direction
4. : to undergo milling or hulling
seed was too wet to mill properly
III. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
Etymology: perhaps from mill (II)
archaic : to break into or rob (a house)
IV. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Latin mille thousand — more at mile
: a unit of monetary value equal to 1/1000 United States dollar or 1/10 cent
V. abbreviation
million