I. mill 1 /mɪl/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[ Sense 1-5: Language: Old English ; Origin: mylen , from Late Latin molina , from Latin mola 'mill, millstone' ]
[ Sense 6: Date: 1700-1800 ; Language: Latin ; Origin: mille 'thousand' ]
[ Sense 7: Date: 1900-2000 ; Origin: million ]
1 . GRAIN a building containing a large machine for crushing grain into flour
2 . COTTON/CLOTH/STEEL a factory that produces materials such as cotton, cloth, or steel
cotton/steel/paper etc mill
an old Victorian cotton mill
3 . coffee/pepper mill a small machine for crushing coffee or pepper
4 . go through the mill to go through a time when you experience a lot of difficulties and problems:
He’s really been through the mill recently.
5 . put somebody through the mill to make someone answer a lot of difficult questions or do a lot of difficult things in order to test them:
It was a three-day course and they really put us through the mill.
6 . MONEY American English a unit of money equal to 1/10 of a cent, used in setting taxes and for other financial purposes
7 . MILLION spoken a million:
Are you saying they paid a quarter of a mill for that house?
⇨ ↑ run-of-the-mill , ⇨ (all) grist to the mill at ↑ grist
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THESAURUS
▪ factory a building or group of buildings in which goods are produced in large quantities, using machines:
She works in a chocolate factory.
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a clothing factory
▪ plant a large factory where cars, chemicals, or energy is produced:
Local residents are protesting about the new nuclear power plant.
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a car plant
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a nuclear power plant
▪ facility a factory. Facility is often used instead of factory in business English:
The new production facility is one of the most up-to-date in the area.
▪ works used in the following compounds to describe a factory that produces a particular thing: a steelworks/ironworks/brickworks/a chemical/cement works/a printing works
▪ mill a factory that produces paper, cotton, or cloth:
a paper mill
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The textile mill has been converted into luxury flats.
▪ shipyard a place where ships are built or repaired:
The vessel was built in the Kobe shipyard.
▪ foundry a factory where metal is made into things using ↑ mould s :
Mandela’s statue was cast here in a local foundry.
▪ sweatshop disapproving a small factory where people work hard in bad conditions for very little money:
The company was fined for selling goods produced in sweatshops.
II. mill 2 BrE AmE verb [transitive]
1 . to crush grain, pepper etc in a mill:
All our flours are milled using traditional methods.
Add some freshly milled black pepper.
2 . to press, roll, or shape metal in a machine
mill around/about (something) phrasal verb informal
if a lot of people mill around, they move around a place in different directions without any particular purpose:
Crowds of students were milling around in the street.
There were a lot of people milling around the entrance.