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单词 mill
释义

milln.1

Brit. /mɪl/, U.S. /mɪl/
Forms:

α. Old English mylen, Old English mylln (rare), Old English–1600s myln, Middle English meln, Middle English millen, Middle English mulen, Middle English mullane, Middle English mulne, Middle English mylene (in a late copy), Middle English myllen, Middle English 1600s millne, Middle English–1500s melne, Middle English–1500s mylne, Middle English–1600s miln, Middle English–1600s milne, 1500s myllne, 1600s milln; English regional (chiefly east midlands and northern) 1700s milln, 1700s– miln; Scottish pre-1700 meln, pre-1700 millen, pre-1700 millin, pre-1700 millyn, pre-1700 milyne, pre-1700 mulne, pre-1700 mylen, pre-1700 mylene, pre-1700 mylin, pre-1700 myline, pre-1700 myllane, pre-1700 myllin, pre-1700 mylln, pre-1700 myllne, pre-1700 myllyn, pre-1700 myln, pre-1700 mylnne, pre-1700 1700s milln, pre-1700 1700s millne, pre-1700 1700s milne, pre-1700 1700s mylne, pre-1700 1700s–1800s miln.

β. Old English (in compounds)–Middle English myle, Old English (rare)–1600s myll, Middle English mel (in compounds), Middle English mele (in compounds), Middle English mell, Middle English mole (in compounds), Middle English molle, Middle English mul (in compounds), Middle English mule (in compounds), Middle English mulle, Middle English 1600s mile (in compounds), Middle English–1500s melle, Middle English–1500s mylle, Middle English–1600s mille, Middle English–1600s myl, Middle English–1600s (1700s–1800s in compounds) mil, late Middle English– mill; English regional (East Anglian) 1800s– mell, 1800s– mull; Scottish pre-1700 meill, pre-1700 mell, pre-1700 melle, pre-1700 mile, pre-1700 mille, pre-1700 mwyle, pre-1700 myil, pre-1700 myill, pre-1700 myl, pre-1700 myle, pre-1700 myll, pre-1700 mylle, pre-1700 (1700s– in compounds) mil, pre-1700 1700s– mill, 1700s– mull, 1900s– mul (rare); also Irish English 1800s mile, 1900s– mull (northern).

Origin: A borrowing from Latin. Etymons: Latin molina, molinus.
Etymology: Ultimately < post-classical Latin molina (late 4th cent.; from 9th cent. in British sources), use as noun of feminine singular of molinus, adjective (late 2nd or early 3rd cent. in Tertullian in compound molinum saxum millstone) < classical Latin mola mill (see meal n.1) + -īnus -ine suffix1. Post-classical Latin molina (and apparently also, in some cases, classical Latin mola ) were evidently borrowed into Germanic at an early date, compare Old Frisian mole (West Frisian mole ), Middle Dutch mōlen , muelen , mōle (Dutch molen , (archaic) meulen , Dutch regional mole ), Old Saxon muli (Middle Low German mȫle , moele , molle ), Old High German mulī , mulin (Middle High German mül , müle , German Mühle ), Old Icelandic mylna , Old Swedish mylna , mölna , mölla (Swedish regional mölla ), Old Danish mølnæ (Danish mølle ); the Scandinavian forms are probably ultimately borrowings < Old English or Middle Low German. Although occasional reflexes of post-classical Latin molina are found in Romance (chiefly in western Romance and only in specific senses, compare Old Occitan molina (perhaps) large mill (1274; Occitan molina horizontal waterwheel), Catalan molina mechanical saw, iron mill (1314), Portuguese moinha chaff (17th cent.)), it is from the corresponding neuter form, post-classical Latin molinum (6th cent.; from 10th cent. in British sources), that the usual word for ‘mill’ in most Romance languages is derived, compare Old French molin (c1140: compare moline n. and adj.; French moulin : compare moulin n.), Old Occitan, Occitan molin (a1148), Spanish molino (1207), Portuguese moinho (1209), Italian molino (1230–1), mulino (1238); compare also molinary adj. Slavonic languages have on the one hand masculine words for ‘mill’ ultimately borrowed < post-classical Latin molinum (compare Ukrainian mlyn , Polish młyn , Serbian mlin , Croatian mlin ), and on the other hand native feminine words (e.g. Russian mel′nica ) ultimately < the Indo-European base of meal n.1The Old English word is attested both as masculine and feminine (as are the Middle Dutch words), which has led to the suggestion that they are partly < post-classical Latin molinum ; however, change of gender in Old English (and Middle Dutch) is more likely (compare A. Campbell Old Eng. Gram. (1959) §521). In all other Germanic languages the cognate word is (or was) feminine. The sporadic assimilatory loss of n after l (compare β. forms) took place (in some areas) from late Old English onwards (although n is frequently retained in spelling until much later; compare kiln n., and see further E. J. Dobson Eng. Pronunc. 1500–1700 (ed. 2, 1968) II. §396). The East Anglian regional form mell is the reflex of the south-eastern Middle English form mell; the pronunciation it represents is condemned as early as 1596 as ‘the barbarous speech of your countrie people’ by Edmund Coote, headmaster of the grammar school at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk ( Eng. Schoole-maister ii. 30); the East Anglian regional form mull is perhaps in origin a low-stress variant of mell.
I. Senses relating to the grinding of corn.
1.
a. A building designed and fitted with machinery for the grinding of corn into flour (traditionally one worked by wind or water power).Frequently as the final element in compounds, as flour-, grist-, water-, windmill, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill > building
millOE
mill-housec1300
by-mill1456
grinding-house1598
society > occupation and work > equipment > mills > [noun]
millc1425
millwork1799
molendinary1821
OE Bounds (Sawyer 618) in S. E. Kelly Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Pt. 2 (2001) 280 Ærest of eadwardes mylne þæt on ða ealdan dic.
OE Rule St. Benet (Corpus Cambr.) 127 Swa sceal mynster beon gestaþelod, þæt ealle neadbehefe þing þær binnan wunien, þæt is wæterscype, mylen, wyrtun and gehwylce misenlice cræftas.
OE Rule St. Benet (Tiber.) (1888) lxvi. 112 Monasterium..ita debet constitui, ut omnia necessaria, id est aqua molendinum ortus [etc.]..intra in monasterium exerceantur : mynster..sceall beon gesett þæt ealle neod behefness þæt is wæter myll orceard [etc.]..wiðinnan minstre beon geganne.
lOE Bounds (Sawyer 840) in J. M. Kemble Codex Diplomaticus (1845) III. 189 Se mylenham and se myln ðærto.
lOE Laws: Gerefa (Corpus Cambr.) ix. 454 Me mæig in Maio & Iunio & Iulio..weodian, faldian, fiscwer & mylne macian.
a1225 ( Rule St. Benet (Winteney) (1888) 139 Þæt ealle neodbehefe þinȝ..þæt is wæter & mylne..widinne þam mynstre beo.
a1350 ( in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 131 Þe kyng..saisede þe mulne for a castel.
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Reeve's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 3 Vp on the which brook ther stant a Melle And this is verray sooth þt I yow telle.
c1425 J. Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. 738 Vpon þat flood On eche-asyde many mylle stood.
1481 W. Caxton tr. Siege & Conqueste Jerusalem (1893) xx. 51 They sawe vij myllenes, whiche stode at brygge nyghe the town and sette them a fyre.
c1540 (?a1400) Gest Historiale Destr. Troy 1604 There were bild by the bankes of þe brode stremes, Mylnes full mony.
1547 in J. Stuart Extracts Council Reg. Aberdeen (1844) I. 250 It is lesum to ws to grind and multur our cornis..at the mill of Gilcamstoun.
1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 526 A Miller that kept a Mill adioinyng to the wall.
1601 W. Fulbecke Parallele or Conf. Law (1602) i. 39 She shal not so be indowed of a milne, but shall haue the third part of the profit of the milne, because the milne cannot be seuered.
a1633 G. Herbert Outlandish Prov. (1640) sig. A7 The mill cannot grind with the water that's past.
1766 J. Cunningham Miller in Poems 48 In a plain pleasant cottage, conveniently neat, With a mill and some meadows.
1770 O. Goldsmith Deserted Village 11 The never-failing brook, the busy mill.
1806 W. Cruise Digest Laws Eng. Real Prop. VI. 477 Edward Manning, being possessed of the moiety of a farm and mill for the term of 50 years, devised his indenture of lease.
1859 W. Dickinson Gloss. Words & Phrases Cumberland 11 Some farms are bound by tenure to carry their corn to the manorial mill to be multured and ground.
1903 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Sept. 365/1 A leet..whose waters work the mill below.
1997 Oxoniensia 61 294 This type of mill literally straddles the mill stream, with the water flowing through two arches underneath the mill.
b. An apparatus for grinding corn.The older word for a hand-mill was quern n.1 (cf. variant reading in quot. a1425).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill
millOE
oat mill1482
corn-mill1523
grist-mill1602
barley-mill1797
flouring-mill1797
moulin1837
corn-grinder1841
grain-mill1867
OE Homily: Sermonem Angelorum Nomina (Corpus Cambr. 419) in A. S. Napier Wulfstan (1883) 227 Ne [on þysne dæg] mylnum nis alyfed to eornenne ne on huntað to ridenne ne nan unalyfedlic weorc to wyrcenne.
a1425 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Christ Church Oxf.) Matt. xxiv. 41 Mylne [c1384 Douce 369(2) two wymmen schulen be gryndynge in oo querne].
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Exod. xi. 5 The mayde seruaunte which is behynde ye myll.
1535 Bible (Coverdale) Matt. xxiv. 41 Two shal be gryndinge at the Myll.
1614 G. Markham Cheape & Good Husb. i. 15 Let his food be either sodden Barly, warme Graines and salt, or Beanes spelted in a mill.
1771 T. Pennant Tour Scotl. (1794) 232 Saw here a Quern, a sort of portable mill made of two stones.
1791 W. Cowper tr. Homer Odyssey in Iliad & Odyssey II. xx. 135 She rested on her mill, and thus pronounced The happy omen by her lord desired.
1889 Overland Monthly 279/1 After daylight I examined the mill. It is a stone slab, about eighteen inches by three feet in size, set at an angle of about thirty degrees.
1903 Pilot 22 Aug. 179/2 San-niang-tzŭ then produced a small mill and ground the wheat to flour.
1931 P. S. Buck Good Earth xv. 144 With this ox tied to his mill he could grind the grain.
1970 A. Fishler in L. E. Sweet Peoples & Culture of Middle East II. 204 The mill in its old form consisted of two large grinding stones, 'āʿda and hegr, which were set in motion by animal traction.
c. = threshing mill n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > [noun] > threshing > machine or device for
waina1382
mill1669
threshing machine1735
threshing mill1768
thrashing machine1771
thresher1778
thrashing mill1790
steamer1898
1669 J. Worlidge Systema Agriculturæ 27 It may be purely separated from its Husk by a Mill.
1799 J. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Perth vii. 163 The barley is twice shilled, i.e. put twice through the mill, on purpose to take off the rind more compleatly.
1888 J. Bradshaw N.Z. of Today viii. 180 Why aren't you tying, or stooking..this harvest... [I] thought I'd wait till the mill [Note threshing machine] started.
1944 J. A. Lee Shining with Shiner 41 He could fork from a stack to a mill.
II. Senses relating to the grinding or processing of other substances or materials.
2.
a. Originally: a machine worked by wind or water power in the manner of a corn mill, though not used for grinding. In later use: a machine performing a specified operation on a material in the process of (esp. industrial) manufacture. Also, a building fitted with such machinery; a building, etc., where a specified industrial or manufacturing process is carried out.Frequently as the final element in compounds, as cotton-, flatting-, fulling-, rolling, saw-, silk-, silver-mill, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > factory > [noun]
mill1403
work1581
factory1618
manufacture1623
manuary1625
manufactory1641
fabric1656
hong1726
plant1789
machinery1799
usine1858
oficina1889
officina1906
1403 Close Roll, 4 Henry IV (P.R.O.: C 54/251) m. 27 dorso Vn Molyn appell. ffullyngmelne.
1429 in W. G. Benham Red Paper Bk. Colchester (1902) 55 (MED) And forbede that no man grynde ne fulle at here milles.
1464 Rolls of Parl. V. 502/2 Wollen Cloth fulled in Milles called Gygmylles and Toune Milles.
1502 in J. B. Paul Accts. Treasurer Scotl. (1900) II. 143 Item..to the Franch armorar to set up his harnas myln.
1596 W. Lambarde Perambulation of Kent (rev. ed.) 453 Two Milles of rare deuise..the one emploied for the making of all sortes of Paper: the other exercised for the drawing of Iron into Wyres [etc.].
1621 H. Elsynge Notes Deb. House of Lords (1870) App. 138 Ireland and Norton came back and..surprised one milne used for other works of his trade.
1630 tr. G. Botero Relations Famous Kingdomes World (rev. ed.) 347 Six mills, in which they make plate for armour.
1673 J. Ray Coll. Eng. Words 113 (heading) The smelting and refining of silver at the silver mills in Cardiganshire.
1725 I. Watts Logick iv. i. §1 In order to make mills and engines of various kinds.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) Mill, among the Gold Wire-Drawers, is a little Machine consisting of two Cylinders of Steel, serving to flatten the Gold, or Silver Wire, and reduce it into Laminæ, or Plates.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. (at cited word) There are also Silk-Mills, for spinning, throwing, and twisting Silks.
1750 Act 23 Geo. II c. 29 & sect. 9 No mill or other engine for slitting or rolling of iron.
1835 A. Ure Philos. Manuf. 287 He [sc. Mr. Graham] cannot admit a new hand into his mill unless he has joined the combination.
1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 242 The productive power of this mill is astonishing: it will manufacture armour-plates from 20 to 40 feet long [etc.].
1905 Edinb. Rev. Apr. 478 He..built mills in the neighbouring villages..for the manufacture of tools [etc.].
1919 Brit. Manufacturer Nov. 26/2 In the linen industry a ‘mill’ means the works where flax is spun into yarns, while a ‘factory’ means the place of the further evolution of the yarns being woven into cloth.
1975 I. McEwan First Love, Last Rites (1976) 15 Back again on Monday to toil in the mills, factories, timber yards and quaysides of London.
1992 C. Giles & I. H. Goodall Yorks. Textile Mills ii. 6/1 Even those mills which produced mixed-fibre cloths..appear to have restricted their production to a single material by buying in the warps, manufacturing their own weft, and then combining the two at the weaving stage.
b. A machine used to impress a design on coinage. Now historical.The exact nature of the mill is debated: most scholars accept that the screw press was the machine used to make the impression, but the original and some later descriptions refer to the screw and mill as if the mill were another part of the process (perhaps a rolling machine for making uniformly thin blanks). The milling machine was used from the 16th until the 18th centuries. It was introduced into England in the 1560s or 1570s by the French moneyer Eloye Mestrell, but was not generally used in the English Mint until the 1660s.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > coining > [noun] > tools used in coining > stamping-machine
mill1592
1592 [see mill sixpence n. at Compounds 2].
1636 in R. W. Cochran-Patrick Rec. Coinage Scotl. (1876) II. 54 For coyning of the bulyeoun with greater expedition..by a milne nor by the hammer.
1662 Order in Council in M. Folkes Table Eng. Silver Coins (1745) 104 Several proposals..about coining his majesty's moneys by the mill and press.
1695 W. Lowndes Rep. Amendm. Silver Coins 93 All the Moneys we have now in England..are reducible to Two Sorts..one stampt with the Hammer, and the other Prest with an Engine, called the Mill.
1797 Encycl. Brit. V. 130/2 The coining engine or mill is so handy, that a single man may stamp twenty thousand planchets in one day.
1817 R. Ruding Ann. Coinage Brit. I. 139 The advantage of this machine (which is known by the name of The Mill and Screw) over the old mode of striking with an hammer, consists [etc.].
1854 H. N. Humphreys Coinage Brit. Empire 113 Pierre Blondeau..who had carried to perfection the..modes of stamping coins by the mill and screw, was invited to England... He produced patterns of half-crowns, shillings, and half-shillings, coined by the new mill and screw, by which means a legend was impressed for the first time upon the edge.
1932 G. C. Brooke Eng. Coins (ed. 2) xvi. 204 He [sc. Charles I] introduced again into England the latest French machinery, with mill and screw-press, which Eloye Mestrell had used in the reign of Elizabeth.
1970 B. Hobson & R. Obojski Illustr. Encycl. World Coins (1971) 200 Eloye Mestrell, a worker from the Paris Mint, was brought to the Royal Mint at London where he produced coins with a mill that rolled metal to the desired thickness, cut out the blanks, and stamped them. Power was supplied by horses.
c. In calico-printing and the printing of banknotes: a steel roller used to transfer an engraved impression from a hand-engraved die to an intaglio printing plate. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > treating or processing textile fabric > [noun] > printing > calico printing > other equipment
colour doctor1839
mill1839
sieve1839
colour roller1890
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 218 The first roller engraved by hand is called the die; the second..is called the mill.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1439/2 Mill,..the hardened steel roller having the design in cameo, and used for impressing in intaglio a plate..or a copper cylinder.
d. A hollow revolving cylinder in which leather is tumbled in contact with oil, tan, or other softening liquid. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for working with skins or leather > [noun] > equipment for softening hides or leather > vat or receptacle
layer1797
softening machine1875
soak1876
stock1882
milla1884
pinwheel1885
wheel vat1885
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 606/2 The mill is used for stuffing light leather, and for other purposes. After stoning, skiving, and shaving, the sides are put in the mill with some tan liquor to soften them and make them porous.
3.
a. A machine or apparatus for grinding or reducing a solid substance other than corn to powder, shreds, pulp, etc. Also, a building fitted with such machinery.Frequently as the final element in compounds, as coffee, pepper, powder-mill, etc.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding
mullet1398
mill1560
rammer1630
pulverizer1635
crackera1640
hand mill1656
grinder1688
mortar1733
pestle mill1773
pulverer1778
bruiser1809
smasher1822
muller1823
pug mill1824
crusher1825
pounding machine1839
pug1859
disintegrator1874
micronizer1934
1560 T. Gresham in J. W. Burgon Life & Times Sir T. Gresham (1839) I. iv. 294 The Quene's Majestie should do well to macke..iiij or vi mylles for the macking of powdyr.
1596 W. Lambarde Perambulation of Kent (rev. ed.) 453 Two Milles of rare deuise..the one emploied for the making of all sortes of Paper: the other exercised for the drawing of Iron into Wyres [etc.].
1666–7 in R. Boyle Wks. (1772) VI. 551 Tin always..must be prepared..by stamping, or knocking mills, which reduce the whole body to a very small sand.
1666–7 in R. Boyle Wks. (1772) VI. 552 The tin-slag, may, by being exposed to the open air and rain for a time, be sooner prepared in the mill, and melted down.
c1710 C. Fiennes Diary (1888) 101 The mill..pounded the raggs to morter for ye paper.
1712 A. Pope Rape of Locke i, in Misc. Poems 360 The Board's with Cups and Spoons, alternate, crown'd; The Berries crackle, and the Mill turns round.
1779 J. Wedgwood Let. 9 Oct. in Sel. Lett. (1965) 242 The mob completely destroyed a set of mills valued at £10, 000.
1800 tr. E. J. B. Bouillon-Lagrange Man. Course Chem. II. 71 The result will be a sulphate of lead of a beautiful whiteness, and exceedingly fine, if it be washed in a large quantity of water, and then carefully mixed in a mill.
1889 C. G. W. Lock Pract. Gold-mining 226 A new mill for reducing cement, known as Drake's cement-mill..is in form of a tube [etc.].
1912 H. Belloc This & That 44 Black pepper..ground large upon them in fresh granules from a proper wooden mill.
1969 P. Rado Introd. Technol. Pottery iii. 52 The body preparation plant, comprising the mill (where the materials are crushed and ground) [etc.].
1984 in C. Kightly Country Voices i. 28 They used to get their collars and ties off, and go up agin' cake mill, and they'd have it out.
1998 Divertimenti Catal. Winter 38/3 Grind spices as needed with this attractive mill from Greece.
b. A machine or apparatus for squeezing the liquid from fruit, vegetables, plants, etc., by grinding or crushing. Also, a building fitted with such machinery.Frequently as the final element in compounds, as cane-, cider-mill, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > equipment for food preparation > [noun] > grinder
mortareOE
mortle1570
mill1588
metate1625
potato-mill1812
food mill1857
Moulinette1936
Mouli1937
mouli-légumes1959
moulin à legumes1959
moulin1962
1588 T. Hariot Briefe Rep. Virginia sig. B2v There are two sortes of Walnuttes both holding oyle... When there are milles & other deuises for the purpose, a commodity of them may be raised because there are infinite store.
1676 J. Worlidge (title) Vinetum Britannicum: or, a Treatise of Cider... And a Description of the new-invented Ingenio or Mill, for the more expeditious and better making of Cider.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics ii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 94 Then Olives, ground in Mills, their fatness boast. View more context for this quotation
1708 J. Philips Cyder 11 My mill Now grinds choice apples.
1794 J. Clark Gen. View Agric. Hereford 40 The [cider] mill consists of a stone like a mill-stone (runner) set on its edge, with an axle through the center [etc.].
c1830 in Caribbean Q. (1953) 3 iii. 157 It has ever been their practice, to prevent the extension of useful practical knowledge, other than the hewing of cane fields, and feeding the mill, to the Negro.
1853 A. Ure Dict. Arts (ed. 4) II. 284 They give the name virgin oil to that which is first obtained from the olives ground to a paste in a mill.
1873 C. Robinson New S. Wales 18 Cane crushed at the large mills on the Clarence.
1978 in R. Allsopp Dict. Caribbean Eng. Usage (1996) 381/2 In most estates, there are four mills through which the cane would pass.
1991 J. Richardson Life of Picasso I. vii. 99 The Pallarèses were delighted..to have the stalwart Manuel..to help tend the olive trees and..the mill, which still produces fine oil.
c. Originally and chiefly Scottish. A snuffbox, originally one in which tobacco could be ground to powder by a simple mechanism; = mull n.7 Obsolete (historical in later use).Recorded earliest in snuff-mill n. [Compare the following early evidence from an English observer:
1702 T. Morer Short Acct. Scotl. 20 A little Engine after the form of a Tap, which they carry in their Pockets, and is both a Mill to grind and a Box to keep it [sc. tobacco] in.
]
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > tobacco > snuff > [noun] > snuff-box
milla1689
snuff-box1688
snuff-milla1689
joint1701
sneezer1725
mull?1762
snuff-mull1808
tabatière1823
taddy-box1907
a1689 W. Cleland Coll. Poems (1697) 12 Right well mounted of their ear:..With Durk, and Snap work, and Snuff-mill.
1720 A. Pennecuik Streams from Helicon (ed. 2) i. 65 A Mill with Snitian, to pepper her Nose.
a1780 A. Shirrefs Poems (1790) 215 And there, o'er pot o' beer right spruce, And mill in hand, The carls crack'd awa' fell crouse About the land.
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. (at cited word) Those, who wished to have snuff, were wont to toast the leaves.., then bruise them..in the box; which was therefore called a mill, from the snuff being ground in it.
1819 W. Scott Bride of Lammermoor xii, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. I. 314 Carry that ower to Mrs Sma'trash, and bid her fill my mill wi' snishing.
4. A machine which performs its work of cutting, polishing, engraving, etc., by rotary motion; a milling machine; (also) a rotating cutting tool mounted on such a machine.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > mills > [noun] > performing rotary motion
mill1728
1728 Stamford Mercury 21 Mar. 95/1 To be Lett..A Very convenient Place for a Fellmonger or Tanner, well Water'd for either business,..and a Mill for Milling leather, if they have Occasion for it.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 1096 It [sc. the seal engraver's lathe] consists of a table on which is fixed the mill.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 1096 Having fixed the tool..in the mill, the artist applies to its cutting point, or edge, some diamond-powder.
1860 C. Tomlinson Useful Arts & Manuf. 2nd Ser. Pens 44 Each of these lengths is then pointed at each end at a machine called a mill, consisting of a circular single-cut file and a fine grit-stone.
1879 Encycl. Brit. X. 663/2 The [glass] articles are held in the hand, and applied to the mill while rotating.
1882 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 299/1 Another form of lapidary's mill consists [etc.].
1964 S. Crawford Basic Engin. Processes (1969) vi. 147 The removal of excess metal by means of revolving multi-tooth cutters (or mills).
1994 Harrowsmith Apr. 54/1 A sawyer operating a small, simple mill might edge them [sc. flitches] with the headsaw.
III. Figurative uses.
5.
a. A formative or conditioning process, environment, etc., esp. one regarded as somewhat mechanistic, laborious, or homogenizing.Typically in the context of extended metaphors.
ΚΠ
a1631 J. Donne Poems (1633) 346 They are the mills which grinde you, yet you are The winde which drives them.
1631 B. Jonson Divell is Asse iii. iii, in Wks. II. 135 I'le gi'you leaue to put him i'the Mill, H'is no great, large stone, but a true Paragon, H'has all his corners.
a1795 S. Bishop Poet. Wks. (1796) I. 303 [Law] grinds judgments, styles, modes, in the mill of Virtù.
1850 Ld. Tennyson In Memoriam lxxxvii. 131 Ground in yonder social mill We rub each other's angles down. View more context for this quotation
1876 H. James Roderick Hudson vii. 237 Fancy feeling one's self ground in the mill of a third-rate talent!
1997 Times Lit. Suppl. 23 May 21/2 Danton's famously pinioning and bullish oratory, Condorcet's mathematical sentences—and everyone's else's [sic] thoughts and speech—are ground down in the mill of a flat-footed prose style.
b. A means or mechanism by which something is created or developed; a crucible, a melting pot.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > [noun] > place of production or creation
shop1517
workhouse?1533
workshop1561
childbed1568
factory1618
laboratory1654
elaboratory1667
hotbed1693
mill1771
1771 T. Smollett Humphry Clinker II. 50 He observed, that her ladyship's brain was a perfect mill for projects.
1883 Harper's Mag. Apr. 694/1 Model villages,..all turned out of the same mill.
1898 Cosmopolitan Aug. 388/1 These women, who have come through the mill of self-responsibility, will not accept the old nonsense invented for them.
1938 Life 4 Apr. 55/1 Those Britons who reach positions of authority without passing through the mill of a great Public School almost invariably send their sons to one.
1951 Times 20 Feb. 4/4 A rotation plan was ‘in the mill’ and would be announced soon.
1977 Y. Menuhin Unfinished Journey vii. 136 Other much-played works followed Lekeu's Sonata into the mill, delivering up to my understanding the inevitability of the notes chosen to carry the impulse of the music from start to finish.
c. A prolific producer or disseminator of information, assertion, etc.: esp. a purveyor of hearsay. Frequently with modifying word, as gossip-, rumour-mill, etc.
ΚΠ
1848 J. R. Lowell Biglow Papers 1st Ser. iv, in Poet. Wks. 200 Babel was..the earliest mill erected for the manufacture of gabble.
1867 J. G. Whittier Tent on Beach 85 One..Who..Had left the Muses' haunts to turn The crank of an opinion mill, Making his rustic reed of song A weapon in the war with wrong.
1889 ‘M. Twain’ Connecticut Yankee iii. 46 That same old weary tale that..he will tell till he dieth, every time he hath gotten his barrel full and feeleth his exaggeration-mill a-working.
1943 Public Opinion Q. 7 132 In spite of contradictions then current in the press, in the Government, and in the rumour mill, somebody should have been plugging away vehemently and effectively at the basic fact underlying the whole dispute.
1973 New Journalist (Austral.) July–Aug. 2/3 If there's any truth at all in what's been processed through the industry rumour mills, the..journalists..might well be coming from the Sydney production lines.
1999 J. M. Coetzee Disgrace (2000) v. 42 The gossip-mill, he thinks, turning day and night, grinding reputations.
IV. Extended uses.
6. slang. A fist fight; (hence) a boxing match. Also more generally: a fight, a scrap.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > [noun] > bout or contest
boxing match1699
set-to1743
bruising-match1757
show-off1776
rally1805
turn-up1810
mill1812
spar1814
twista1849
wap1887
go1890
scrap1905
promotion1907
1812 P. Egan Boxiana 104 Martin..fought well;..and not till after a complete mill for three quarters of an hour..did Martin signify that he had enough.
1819 T. Moore Tom Crib's Memorial to Congress 36 We who're of the fancy-lay, As dead hands at a mill as they.
1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 270 To cut a dash at races or a mill.
1864 Eton School Days vii. 77 We are waiting to see your mill with Butler Burke.
1869 R. D. Blackmore Lorna Doone I. ii. 14 They who made the ring intituled the scene a ‘mill’, while we who must be thumped inside it tried to rejoice in their pleasantry.
1897 National Police Gaz. (U.S.) 26 May 7/4 (heading) A fatal mill in Wales.
1906 E. Dyson Fact'ry 'Ands xv. 198 Hot 'n' willin' was ther mills he [sc. a cat] had up under ther roof.
1922 S. Leslie Oppidae ix. 102 A Sunday's quarrel between the two had been followed by a Monday's mill.
1934 D. Hammett Brother's Keeper in Collier's 17 Feb. 43/1 Across the ring they were propping Perelman up on his stool... ‘Boy, was that a mill!’
1996 P. O'Brian Yellow Admiral ii. 51 If you want a proper mill, have a proper mill, not a God-damned pothouse brawl.
7.
a. = treadmill n.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun] > instruments of punishment in > treadmill
mill1822
treadmill1822
tread-wheel1822
treading-mill1830
stepper1846
shin-scraper1869
1822 Sat. Evening Post (Philadelphia) 19 Oct. 3/3 This decrease [in crime]..is owing entirely to the heavy and tedious labour upon the prisoners at the mill. Orders had been given for the erection of several more mills in England.
1836 C. Dickens Sketches by Boz 1st Ser. I. 334 The mill's a d—d sight better than the Sessions.
1888 Pall Mall Gaz. 6 June 7/1 When after three days of the mill I got off at night I found my feet were four or five times their ordinary weight.
1957 N. Frye Anat. Crit. 178 The tricky slave, who is threatened with the mill.
b. slang. A prison, a guardhouse. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > prison > [noun]
quarternOE
prisona1200
jailc1275
lodgec1290
galleya1300
chartrea1325
ward1338
keepingc1384
prison-house1419
lying-house1423
javel1483
tollbooth1488
kidcotec1515
clinkc1530
warding-place1571
the hangman's budget1589
Newgate1592
gehenna1594
Lob's pound1597
caperdewsie1599
footman's inn1604
cappadochio1607
pena1640
marshalsea1652
log-house1662
bastille1663
naskin1673
state prison1684
tronk1693
stone-doublet1694
iron or stone doublet1698
college1699
nask1699
quod1699
shop1699
black hole1707
start1735
coop1785
blockhouse1796
stone jug1796
calaboose1797
factory1806
bull-pen1809
steel1811
jigger1812
jug1815
kitty1825
rock pile1830
bughouse1842
zindan1844
model1845
black house1846
tench1850
mill1851
stir1851
hoppet1855
booby hatch1859
caboose1865
cooler1872
skookum house1873
chokey1874
gib1877
nick1882
choker1884
logs1888
booby house1894
big house1905
hoosegow1911
can1912
detention camp1916
pokey1919
slammer1952
joint1953
slam1960
1851 H. Mayhew London Labour I. 352/2 A few weeks after I was grabbed for this, and got a month at the mill... When I came out of prison, I went to Epsom races.
1853 G. J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand I. ix. 229 The latter worthy..gave a policeman such a licking the other night, that he was within an ace of getting ‘a month at the mill’.
1889 H. H. McConnell Five Years Cavalryman 194 Very few, indeed, are they who during their term of service can say: ‘They never had me in the mill.’
1916 E. C. Garrett Army Ballads & Other Verses 21 And they put me in ‘the mill’.
1951 J. Jones From Here to Eternity iv. xlii. 636 ‘You were here when one of the old ones was in the mill, weren't you, Jack?’ ‘Two,’ Malloy said. ‘Both of them during my first stretch.’
1960 H. Wentworth & S. B. Flexner Dict. Amer. Slang 339/1 Mill,..a prison; a guardhouse.
8. Mechanical applications.
a. The mechanism in Charles Babbage's analytical engine where arithmetic operations were performed on data. Cf. arithmetic unit at arithmetic adj. b. Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
society > computing and information technology > hardware > computer > [noun] > mechanical
calculating machine1832
mill1837
difference engine1843
1837 C. Babbage in B. Randell Origins Digital Computers (1973) 17 The calculating part of the engine may be divided into two portions..the Mill in which all operations are performed..[and] the Store.
1948 Proc. Symp. Large-scale Digital Calculating Machinery 1947 93 The early designs of Babbage for an Analytical Engine involved a ‘mill’, in which the formulas were stored and the mathematical operations carried out.
1975 Nature 16 Oct. 541/2 Like a modern computer it [sc. Babbage's analytical engine] was to have a store in which numbers could be held, and a processor known as the ‘mill’ in which the arithmetic operations would be performed.
b. U.S. slang. A typewriter.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > printing > typing > typewriter > [noun]
typographer1829
typewriter1868
typer1892
mill1911
office piano1942
1911 Pacific Monthly Aug. 29/1 I hammered the story off on my ‘mill’.
1922 N. A. Crawford Weavers with Words 22 And sometimes..I'll start to say, ‘Jim, got a good cigarette?’ and turn toward his battered old ‘mill’.
1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 717 Writers' cramp was cured..on the advent of the mill, i.e., the typewriter.
1982 T. C. Mason Battleship 33 A set of earphones lay across each ‘mill’.
c. slang. [after French moulin (1909).] The engine of an aircraft or motor vehicle.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > air or space travel > a means of conveyance through the air > aeroplane > parts of aircraft > means of propulsion > [noun] > aircraft engine
aeromotor1909
mill1918
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > machines which impart power > engine > other types of engine > [noun] > other specific engines
ballast engine?1748
reciprocator1769
bellows-engine1834
jack engine1847
power producer1859
trunk-engine1864
naphtha engine1876
jinny1877
barring engine1885
shifter1904
yarder1911
mill1918
rocket1919
booster1944
monobloc1944
1918 Atlantic Monthly Sept. 414 Motor is ‘moulin’—to start it, one ‘turns the mill’.
1937 E. C. Parsons Great Adventure vi. 60 To nurse one of the grunting old mills up to that height,..and keep it running for an hour, was in itself quite a stunt.
1948 H. L. Mencken Amer. Lang. Suppl. II. 724 There are others [sc. new terms] that remain the private property of the men working in automobile plants and of those who sell or repair cars. A few specimens; Bald-head. A worn tire... Mill. An engine [etc.].
1954 R. F. Yates & B. W. Yates Sport & Racing Cars ii. 24 The additional motor ‘moxie’ provided by a reground camshaft is truly amazing, and all of this without running too much risk of a cranky ‘mill’ at low idling speeds.
1975 B. Garfield Hopscotch xv. 152 This was an old car but it must have had a souped-up mill.
1987 Super Bike June 20/4 These internal aerodynamic refinements are joined by a plethora of mechanical revisions, which together create one of the sweetest mills on the market.
9.
a. [Compare German Mühle (17th cent.).] The game of merel, nine men's morris. Also (rarely) with the and (Irish English) in plural.
ΚΠ
1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words II. 17 This amusement was..called Nine Men's Merrills or Nine Men's Morris... It is often called by the name of Mill.
1910 P. W. Joyce Eng. as we speak it in Ireland xiii. 294 A few years ago I saw two persons playing mills in a hotel in Llandudno; and my heart went out to them.
1979 Official World Encycl. Sports & Games 24 Nine men's morris, also called mill, morelles, or merels, is one of the oldest games in Europe.
b. [Compare German Mühle (18th cent.).] In the game of nine men's morris: the row of three ‘men’ required to capture an opponent's piece.
ΚΠ
1937 Games (Chicago Park District) 21, in Dict. Amer. Regional Eng. As soon as either player gets three men in a line he has formed a ‘mill’.
1960 R. C. Bell Board & Table Games 93 When all the men have been entered the turns continue by moving a piece to an adjacent vacant point along a line, with the object of making a mill and capturing an enemy piece.
1992 Guinness Bk. Trad. Pub Games 165/2 The object all along is for the players to get three of their pieces into a straight line on the board, called a ‘mill’.
10.
a. U.S. A circling movement of cattle. Cf. mill v.1 16a.
ΚΠ
1874 J. G. McCoy Hist. Sketches Cattle Trade vi. 97 The drover swims his cow pony into the center of the mill, and, if possible, frightens the mass of struggling whirling cattle, into separation.
1897 E. Hough Story of Cowboy 146 By shouts and blows he did all he could to break the ‘mill’ and get the cattle headed properly.
1903 A. Adams Log of Cowboy iv. 27 We soon had a mill going which kept them [sc. cattle] busy and rested our horses.
1942 E. E. Dale Cow Country 55 Those behind them would follow and a ‘mill’ would be established in which the animals would swim around and around in a circle until they drowned unless it were quickly broken up and the leaders again headed for the opposite shore.
1985 R. H. Low & R. Valls St. John Backtime (1985) 24/2 At the site today, the circular shape of the animal mill is unmistakable.
b. A confused or aimless crowd of people; a place filled by such a crowd. Cf. mill v.1 16b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement in circle or curve > [noun] > movement in circle
umganga1300
umganginga1340
circlingc1440
compassing1530
circuition1533
circulation1535
round1539
circumgyration1606
rounding1612
circuling1647
circuiting1659
circumagitation1660
circuity1770
ringing1868
milling1874
circumfluence1881
ring-a-ring1922
mill1961
1961 Webster's 3rd New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Mill,..a mass of people..moving in a circle or without clear direction.
1971 H. Wouk Winds of War xx. 277 Byron carried her luggage and some fragile gifts for her family into the mill of jabbering weeping passengers and relatives at the gate.
1986 D. Potter Ticket to Ride (1987) xviii. 154 The lobby was a mill of people. Most of the voices sounded American.
1991 D. Bolger Woman's Daughter (1992) 140 I turned and walked past the mill of youths talking outside the long-closed pub.
11. U.S. Mining. (a) An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained. (b) A passage, connecting a stope or upper level with a level below, through which mined material is passed.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > workplace > places where raw materials are extracted > mine > [noun] > other places in mine
work1474
firework1606
stemple1653
stool1653
bink1675
engine pit1687
swamp1691
feeder1702
wall1728
bag1742
sill1747
stope1747
rose cistern1778
striking-house1824
plat1828
stemplar1828
screen chamber1829
offtake1835
footwall1837
triple pit1839
stamp1849
paddock1852
working floor1858
pit house1866
ground-sluice1869
screen tower1871
planilla1877
undercurrent1877
mill1878
blanket-sluice1881
stringing-deal1881
wagon-breast1881
brushing-bed1883
poppet-leg1890
slippet1898
stable1906
overcut1940
1878 B. Harte Drift from Two Shores 75 No work was done in the ditches, in the flumes, nor in the mills.
1890 Cent. Dict. Mill, in mining, a passage or opening left for sending down stuff from the stopes to the level beneath.
1915 Northwestern Reporter 152 1022/1 In mining out the copper rock from this stope by the miners, it was passed or thrown downward along the foot wall to the level, through places in the stope called mills. These mills were separated by the batteries.
12. Chiefly North American (depreciative). An institution that provides education, medical treatment, or other service on an intensive basis, primarily for profit. Usually with modifying word, as abortion mill, diploma mill, Medicaid mill, puppy mill, etc.
ΚΠ
1900 G. Ade Fables in Slang 93 One morning a Modern Solomon, who had been chosen to preside as Judge in a Divorce Mill, climbed to his Perch and unbuttoned his Vest for the Wearisome Grind.
1923 Congress. Rec. 12 Dec. 241/2 If the United States mails have been used by self-styled medical institutions and organizations known popularly as ‘diploma mills’ for purposes of fraud in connection with the sale of degrees or diplomas.
1936 Jrnl. Higher Educ. 7 157 A ‘diploma mill’ in Ohio was deprived of its charter in 1900, when investigation..disclosed that the president had sold M.A. degrees for $25 each.
1949 S. Kingsley Detective Story i. 50 You're still running that abortion mill, aren't you?
1962 Pacific Affairs 35 117 These much-maligned ‘diploma mills’..have taken the brunt of expansion, relieving pressure on the State University of the Philippines.
1975 Time 26 May 55/2 Many of the ‘Medicaid mills’ set up to handle poor patients in the nation's urban ghettos reap enormous profits by such practices as ‘Ping Ponging’ (passing a patient along to all the other doctors in the clinic).
1980 Christian Sci. Monitor (Nexis) 9 Apr. 14 Some shops get animals from reputable local breeders, but others buy their dogs from ‘puppy mills’, wholesale factories where dogs are confined to cages and denied exercise and companionship.
1991 Ladies' Home Jrnl. Oct. 108/2 Experts blame some misdiagnoses on poor-quality labs, called ‘mills’.
1994 Boston Globe 16 Oct. (Mag. section) 6/1 Mary Jane Ward's 1946 book, ‘The Snake Pit’, depicted unscrupulous psychiatrists at state ‘shock mills’ using ‘little black boxes’ to jolt patients lined up on beds—the doctors earning fat fees in the process.

Phrases

Phrases and proverbs.
P1. he that comes first to the mill grinds first and variants. [Compare Erasmus Adagia 688 d: qui primus venerit, primus molet] . Cf. first come, first served at first adj., adv., and n.2 Phrases 2d. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
c1395 G. Chaucer Wife of Bath's Tale 389 Who so that first to mille comth, first grynt.
?1475 J. Paston in Paston Lett. & Papers (2004) I. 593 He avysyth me to tery tyll the money be com lest þat I be vnpayed; for who comyth fyrst to the mylle fyrst must grynd.
1666 G. Torriano Proverbial Phrases 156/2 in Piazza Universale Who first goes to the mill, first grindes.
P2. more sacks to the mill and variants (a) argument supplemented with argument or weight with weight (obsolete); (b) in children's play: a call made to indicate that a group of children should throw themselves on to an individual; the action of doing this (now New Zealand).
ΚΠ
1522 J. Skelton Why come ye nat to Courte 107 They may garlycke pyll Cary sackes to the myll.
1590 ‘Pasquil’ First Pt. Pasquils Apol. sig. C2v To the next, to the next, more sacks to the Myll.
1622 J. Mabbe tr. M. Alemán Rogue i. 136 When there was nothing to be done at home, your Lackies..would..fright me with Snakes, hang on my back, & weigh me downe, crying, More sackes to the Mill.
1738 J. Swift Compl. Coll. Genteel Conversat. 403 Now, colonel, come sit down on my lap; more sacks upon the mill.
1811 S. T. Coleridge Let. 12 Oct. (1959) III. 338 Fortune seems to be playing ‘More Sacks on the Mill’ with me.
1888 B. Lowsley Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases 112 Moor zacks to mill, a favourite game with children at Christmas time, when wishing for one of a romping character.
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren x. 201 Ordeals. The following ordeals, or ones similar, appear to be common to many schools in Britain... Piling On. This is done either ‘to hurt a person if he has done wrong’, after he has been forcibly thrown to the ground, or, as opportunity occurs, during rough play, when somebody accidentally falls... In New Zealand the common call is ‘Sacks to the mill’, a formula which was known in Oxfordshire until the end of the nineteenth century.
P3. much water runs by the mill that the miller knows not of and variants: many things happen near or around us of which we know nothing. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1546 J. Heywood Dialogue Prouerbes Eng. Tongue ii. v. sig. Hivv Much water go by the myll, That the myller knoweth not of.
1594 W. Shakespeare Titus Andronicus ii. i. 86 More water glideth by the mill Than wots the Miller of. View more context for this quotation
1666 G. Torriano Proverbial Phrases 2/2 in Piazza Universale Much water passeth by the Mill, that the Miller is not aware of.
1721 J. Kelly Compl. Coll. Scotish Prov. 256 Mickle Water goes by that the Miller wats not of. That is, People who have much among their Hands, will have Things broken, lost, and purloyned, of which they will not be sensible.
P4. to be born in a mill: to be deaf. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1578 G. Whetstone Promos & Cassandra: 1st Pt. i. iv. sig. Bivv Were you borne in a myll, curtole? you prate so hye.
1616 T. Draxe Bibliotheca Scholastica in Anglia (1918) 42 361 Deafnesse... Borne in a mill.
1778 H. Brooke Contending Brothers v. iv. 195 Did you think dthat dthe court vwas baarn in a mill, dthat dthey mustn't hear dtheir own ears for you?
P5. to draw water to one's mill and variants [compare Italian tirar l'acqua al proprio mulino (14th cent.)] : to seize every advantage. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1573 J. Sanford tr. L. Guicciardini Garden of Pleasure f. 110 All draw water to their owne mill.
1649 J. Howell Preheminence Parl. 10 Lewis the eleventh..could well tell how to play his game, and draw water to his owne Mill.
1677 W. Hughes Man of Sin ii. viii. 118 The Invention of bringing more water to the Popes Mill.
1862 A. Hislop Prov. Scotl. 58 Every miller wad weise the water to his ain mill.
P6. the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small and variants [ultimately after Hellenistic Greek ὀψὲ θεῶν ἀλέουσι μύλοι, ἀλέουσι δέ λεπτά (Sextus Empiricus Adversus Mathematicos 1. 287)] : retribution is often delayed but always certain.
ΚΠ
a1633 G. Herbert Outlandish Prov. (1640) sig. D2v Gods Mill grinds slow, but sure.
1666 G. Torriano Proverbial Phrases 70/2 in Piazza Universale God's mill grinds slowly, but bitter is his bran.
1797 S. Charnock Disc. Existence & Attributes God xii. 524 The heathens..expressed it by this proverb, ‘The mills of the gods grind slowly’.
1846 H. W. Longfellow tr. F. Von Logau Retribution in Belfry of Bruges 132 Though the mills of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small.
1866 H. H. Brownell Bay Fight in War Lyrics 21 The Mills of God are grinding slow, But ah, how close they grind!
1929 W. K. Smith Bowery 37 The inevitable workings of the mills of the gods that grind slowly but surely.
1989 R. Hart Remains to be Seen vii. 106 Military record keepers were like the mills of God. They ground slow, and exceeding small, but only at their own pace.
P7. to put through the mill: to cause to experience difficulty, hardship, suffering, etc., esp. as part of a learning process. Also to go (also pass, have been, etc.) through the mill: to undergo a difficult or unpleasant experience.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > operation upon something > exert operative influence [verb (intransitive)] > experience some action or influence
attastec1460
to go (also pass, have been, etc.) through the mill1818
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian iv, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. III. 96 Frank here won't hear of our putting her through the mill.
1837 Knickerbocker 9 356 I had been ‘through the mill’ of a pre-concerted, artificial revival.
1868 H. Woodruff & C. J. Foster Trotting Horse Amer. vi. 76 It was thought that they would be ruined for service if they were ‘put through the mill’.
1887 Contemp. Rev. Jan. 10 Certain persons who have gone through the mill of what is known as our ‘higher education’.
1903 G. Gissing Private Papers Henry Ryecroft 138 His hardships were never excessive; they did not affect his health or touch his spirits; probably he is in every way a better man for having..‘gone through the mill’.
1918 Marines Mag. May 42 Did you know when you joined the U.S. Marines just how you'd get put through the mill?
1940 H. Read Annals of Innocence ii. i. 75 A boy who is destined to be a teacher, a doctor, a technician or a scientist, must go through the mill and acquire the necessary qualifications.
1965 Listener 1 July 21/1 I am a collector—and one who has gone through the mill. I started..in the basement with bus tickets.
1994 Harper's May 58/1 Say I'm black, poor, uneducated, inarticulate, have no lawyer, have been put through the mill: I haven't got a chance.
P8. to make a kirk and a mill of: see kirk n. Phrases. Also †to make a mill of (obsolete rare).
ΚΠ
a1854 E. Grant Mem. Highland Lady (1988) II. xxviii. 281 When they make their own work, they make a mill of it—they can't sit idle and they never appear to consider the consequence of their impulsive acts.

Compounds

C1. Several of these compounds (mill-bridge, brook, -burn, -close, etc.) survive chiefly in place names.
a.
mill-bag n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1832 J. P. Kennedy Swallow Barn I. xv. 155 With the large canvass mill-bags spread out for saddles.
1851 R. Glisan Jrnl. Army Life 2 Apr. (1874) vi. 58 I..endeavored to throw him in a mill-bag style across my saddle.
mill bridge n.
ΚΠ
1606 J. Sylvester tr. Vpon fall of Millars-bridge in G. de S. Du Bartas Divine Weekes & Workes (1621) 615 This Mill-bridge, having fasted long from corn, Is drown'd (perhaps) for having ground too-much.
1704 Boston News-let. 21 Aug. 2/2 At Mr. Joseph Hiller's House near the Mill-bridge in Boston.
1833 Ld. Tennyson Poems 41 I stepped upon the old mill-bridge.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 19/1 (in figure) Ground-plan of Fountains Abbey,..X. Guest-houses. Y. Mill bridge. Z. Gate-house.
1999 Des Moines (Iowa) Reg. (Nexis) 28 Nov. 4 Chris..[has] been studying the ruins of a mill bridge across the river.
mill brook n.
ΚΠ
OE Bounds (Sawyer 1008) in J. M. Kemble Codex Diplomaticus (1846) IV. 105 And swa andlang mearce on mylebroces ford.
1636 in H. M. Burt First Cent. Hist. Springfield (1898) I. 159 The lotts..are ordered to lye adjoining to Mill Brooke.
1864 T. L. Nichols 40 Years Amer. Life I. ii. 20 Grist-mills which ground our corn, and saw-mills which supplied our timber, were upon a mill brook.
1894 H. W. Longfellow Poet. Wks. 340/1 The mill-brook rushed from the rocky height.
mill builder n.
ΚΠ
1760 Philos. Trans. 1759 (Royal Soc.) 51 148 All our modern mill-builders [etc.].
1850 De Bow's Rev. Dec. 673/2 It is this fact..which has conferred on him his reputation as a mill builder.
1992 Professional Engin. Nov. 40/4 Clecim, a French-based mill builder..has specified two of the latest..X-ray systems for..a hot rolling mill at Mariupol in the Ukraine.
mill building n.
ΚΠ
1852 Sci. Amer. 14 Aug. 378 The whole breadth between the island and the main land is covered with the mill buildings and the necessary weirs, dams, flood-gates, and bridges.
1866 ‘M. Twain’ Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 265 The mill building and the tall chimney stand out.
1992 C. Giles & I. H. Goodall Yorks. Textile Mills ii. 30/2 Italianate detailing, like the use of Palladian motifs which preceded it, was frequently applied selectively to mill buildings.
mill-burn n.
ΚΠ
OE Will of Wynflæd (Sawyer 1539) in D. Whitelock Anglo-Saxon Wills (1930) 10 Þæt man finde of þam yrfe æt Ceorlatun[e healfes] pundes wyrþne saulsceat to Mylenburnan [prob. Milborne Port, Dorset].]
lOE Bounds (Sawyer 422) in M. A. O'Donovan Charters of Sherborne (1988) 25 Andlang lace, to mylenburnan, þonne andlang streames oþ gifle.
1165–1214 in C. Innes Liber Sancte Marie de Melros (1837) 55 Quo mulneburne cadit in Ar.
1512 Selkirk Burgh Court f. 17v The milburne.
1834 Chambers's Edinb. Jrnl. 3 254/1 The young M'Callums were..important allies in ..catching minnows in the mill-burn.
1898 Shetland News 19 Mar. in Sc. National Dict. (at cited word) The millburns, and the quaintly diminutive native mills, working horizontally.
mill-close n. [Compare earlier evidence from English field names, as e.g. Mylne Close, Anderby (1612), Mill Close, Nettleham (1647), both in Lincolnshire.]
ΚΠ
1769 Ann. Reg. 1768 73 His servant-man..carried him into the mill-close.
1875 Ladies' Repository Nov. 434/2 Shakespeare's signet-ring..was found..in the year 1810, by a laborer's wife, upon the surface of a mill-close, adjoining Stratford church-yard.
mill corn n. Obsolete
ΚΠ
1343–5 Manorial Documents in Mod. Philol. (1936) 34 51 (MED) Bladi vocati milnecorn.
1547 in D. W. Crossley Sidney Ironworks Accts. 1541–73 (1975) 61 Item received for mill Corne solde hoc anno xiii s viii d.
a1679 R. Wild Benefice (1689) i. 9 He'd been a pretty Fellow, but that they fed him with Mill-Corn and Pottage.
1770 L. Carter Diary 10 Apr. (1965) I. 385 There is a public story now of his..maintaining all his people out of my mill Corn.
mill gear n.
ΚΠ
1557 in J. Raine Wills & Inventories Archdeaconry Richmond (1853) 93 At the barne..the melne geare.
1691 in H. W. Richardson York Deeds (Maine) (1888) IV. f. 135 With all..milldamms mill Ponds head Wares And going Mill gears.
1851 F. Overman (title) The moulder's and founder's pocket guide: a treatise on..the moulding of machine frames, mill-gear, hollow-ware, [etc.].
1928 A. E. Pease Dict. Dial. N. Riding Yorks. 50/1 Gear, moveable property of any kind…Housegear, farmgear, millgear, &c.
1998 Business Wire (Electronic ed.) 15 July Quality concerns with a modified filtration process used in one of our two casting areas led to a significantly higher internal product rejection rate, while a hot mill gear box failure halted production for five days.
mill gearing n.
ΚΠ
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 364 The appropriate modes described under the article ‘Mill-geering’.
1994 Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. 100 613 Everyday supplies such as card brushes,..dressing machines, and mill gearing were also supplied from Manchester.
mill girl n.
ΚΠ
1840 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 2 413 The mill girl from the country, within three or four miles of Leeds, is seemly in her person, and generally decorous in her deportment.
1856 J. G. Whittier Mary Garvin 18 O mill-girl watching late and long the shuttles' restless play!
1932 Times Lit. Suppl. 22 Sept. 668/2 A couple of mill-girls whose morals..are easy but not free.
1972 R. Allen Skinhead Escapes xx. 113 Randy rugger players and mill-girls willing to go into a tackle together.
mill labour n.
ΚΠ
1853 Littell's Living Age 5 Feb. 249 Both sexes, of course, have more inclination and vigor for self-improvement after ten, than they had after twelve hours of mill-labor.
1871 C. Lanman Red Bk. of Michigan 123 In the lumber woods it is estimated that 10,250 men were employed at wages varying from $20 to $25 per month with board; mill labor, $2 and $2.50 per day.
1989 St. Louis (Missouri) Post-Dispatch (Nexis) 3 June b3 By selling unprocessed logs, the U.S. balance of trade misses out on the benefit of value added by American mill labor.
mill lord n.
ΚΠ
1852 Amer. Whig Rev. 16 82 He may have addressed anti-tariff communications to the Journal of Commerce, and probably figures as a desperate and determined opponent of all ‘mill lords’ and ‘monopolies’.
1880 B. Disraeli Endymion II. xxvii. 278 Perhaps we shall get rid of them all some day—landlords and mill-lords.
1994 Boston Herald (Nexis) 19 Aug. 30 He dazzled investors with elaborate tales of..his $8 million–$10 million fortune, partly inherited from his family, who were mill lords in the Lowell-Lawrence area.
mill lot n.
ΚΠ
1746 Boston Weekly News-let. 16 Nov. Seven Acres..to be laid out to the Right of the 30 Acre Mill-Lot, granted to Thomas Richardson.
1804 Quebec Gaz. 2 Aug. (Suppl.) 4/1 They will sell..The Mill and Mill lot.
1848 C. T. Brooks Aquidneck 60 (note) Edward Pellham..became possessed by marriage of the mill lot.
1988 Japan Econ. Jrnl. (Nexis) 30 Jan. 1 A leisure complex featuring spaceflight simulation facilities..will be raised on a vacant mill lot made available by idled furnaces.
mill owner n.
ΚΠ
1712 Boston Rec. 178 Ordered. That the Gentlemen who are the Mill Owners, be notified [etc.].
1794 in Catal. Prints: Polit. & Personal Satires (Brit. Mus.) (1942) VII. 120 We defy the Mill Owners!
1835 A. Ure Philos. Manuf. 348 Assassins who had hired themselves..to murder mill-owners.
1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South iii. iii. 390 Some few of the more intelligent millowners had by now concluded that unionization was perhaps inevitable.
1992 Sunday Times of India 19 Apr. 3/2 Business has taken a beating..thanks to..mill-owners opting for direct negotiations with up-country sellers.
mill rent n.
ΚΠ
1674 W. Cunningham Diary (1887) 27 Being a miller [he] pays nothing till the ordinary terme of mill rents, which is Lammas of the succeeding year.
1894 R. S. Ferguson Hist. Westmorland 165 Mills..still pay mill-rents to this day.
1994 Sunday Tel. (Nexis) 7 Aug. 8 You must excuse the metaphors for you will not find one in the 207 published volumes of the Victoria History. Mill rents yes, and the profits of fisheries.
mill roller n.
ΚΠ
1835 M. Scott Cruise of Midge xii, in Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Mar. 454/2 It being part of Rory's trade to prepare mill-rollers and other large pieces of hard-wood required for the estates below.
1895 Overland Monthly June 665/1 The general character of the mills at this time, however, and up to 1850 and later, was crude and primitive. Generally the mill rollers were wooden.
1997 Independent on Sunday (Nexis) 2 Nov. (Review Suppl.) 65 Wheat germ is removed by millers when making white flour because..(d) It clogs the mill rollers.
mill room n.
ΚΠ
1615 in M. Wood Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1931) VI. 129 The fermoreris of thair mylnis to give mylne rowme to David Ritchie, baxter, to brek thrie furletis of multer of mayne flour.
1696 London Gaz. No. 3186/4 Ordered that none but..those concerned in the Coinage, be permitted to enter the Melting-houses, Mill-rooms [etc.].
1833 B. Silliman Man. Sugar Cane 45 The length of the mill-room A is 64 feet.
1952 Archit. Rev. 111 159/2 Where the roof over the drug room joins that over the mill room there is a reinforced concrete Warren girder.
mill sluice n.
ΚΠ
1654 in Suffolk Deeds (Suffolk County, Mass.) (1883) II. 42 Henry Webb..doth Couenant..to majnetajne his said pt of the damme and all other repajrations..about the mill sluces.
1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm I. 273 The protective effects of running water, such as water-falls from mill-sluices.
1988 J. Purseglove Taming Flood i. 9 Just opposite the point where the brook..joins the Erewash..stands a mill sluice.
mill song n.
ΚΠ
1665 T. Stanley tr. Ælian Various Hist. vii. iv. 146 Pittacus exceedingly commended a Mill, making an Encomium upon it, for that many persons may exercise themselves in little compass. There was a common Song hence called a Mill-Song.
1889 Overland Monthly Sept. 249/1 A song that, accompanied by the sound of the stones crushing the parched grain,..made one almost ready to believe..one had been awakened by the mill song of the people of ancient Egypt.
1993 J. Purser Timeless Heritage of Mus. in J. M. Fladmark Heritage xxiv. 305 There are mill songs, coal-mining songs, protest songs.
mill wall n.
ΚΠ
1570 in Court Minutes Surrey & Kent Sewer Comm. (London County Council) (1909) 67 All manner of persons that haue anye cause to complaine either for the Mille walle or Sluce caled Duffildes Sluce & the levye Chargeable to the same lett them come in at the next Courte daye.
1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise I. i. 157 While the smooth millwalls white and black Shook to the great wheel's measured clack.
1987 A. Pilling Henry's Leg 131 He was soon leaning his bike against the mossy mill wall.
mill-yard n.
ΚΠ
1824 New Hampsh. Hist. Soc. Coll. I. 246 A saw mill torn down and twelve thousand of boards in the mill-yard carried away.
1936 Discovery Sept. 288/1 I saw the mill cat crossing the wall from our garden to the mill yard.
1989 Trans. Yorks. Dial. Soc. lxxxviii. 20 It is natural that, for the old lady, the empty mill-yard should cause regret for the demise of local industry and way of life.
b.
mill-cut adj.
ΚΠ
1925 Glasgow Herald 2 Apr. 9 To import into this country a sufficient number of mill-cut houses to supply the shortage.
1998 Christian Sci. Monitor (Electronic ed.) 2 Nov. 16 The camp was made of mill-cut lumber and corrugated metal; it opened onto the river.
mill-spun adj.
ΚΠ
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 389 Mill-spun yarn answers better for the coarse as well as the finer fabrics.
1987 Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 16 440 South Indian hand-weavers..remained viable after Independence because of English, Japanese, and domestic mill-spun yarn.
C2.
mill band n. a continuous belt for the wheels of mill machinery.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > machine > parts of machines > wheel > [noun] > parts of wheels > band or strap
wheel-banda1656
band1706
strap1790
rim band1831
mill band1858
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 247/2 Mill-band maker, a manufacturer of bands for machine shops, and for driving wheels.
1869 Bradshaw's Railway Man. 21 App. 103 Manufacturers of..Engine Hose, Fire Buckets, Mill Bands, &c.
1957 J. Braine Room at Top ix. 86 The smells of East Warley tugging at me for attention..—malt, burning millband, frying fish.
mill-banding n. a mill band or mill bands collectively.
ΚΠ
1859 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 14 Jan. 128/2 Machinery for the manufacture of ‘hard-tapped’ and ‘soft laid’ twine, ‘mill banding’ strands for ropes.
1894 Daily News 11 Dec. 7/4 Unpuncturable Canvas Lining, for mill-banding, driving belts,..and cycle tyres.
mill bank n. Obsolete a river bank or embankment on which a mill is situated.
ΚΠ
1426–7 in A. F. Leach Educ. Charters (1911) 310 (MED) Iuxta le scole-house ac le Millebank.
1579 in Court Minutes Surrey & Kent Sewer Comm. (London County Council) (1909) 319 John Johnston & John Hardyn to Cope & fille all ther mylle bankes from the mille all alonge the Thames wall.
mill bar n. a rough bar of iron as drawn out by the puddlers' rolls.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > metal > iron > [noun] > type of iron > bar-iron > types of
osmund1295
ozimus1550
nail-rod1774
bolt-iron1793
hoop-iron1820
hooping1823
mill bar1839
larget1852
wire iron1952
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 706 Passing through the remaining grooves till it comes to the square ones, where it becomes a mill-bar.
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 707 This iron called mill-bar iron, is however of too inferior a quality to be employed in any machinery.
1856 Sci. Amer. 11 258 They may be driven in or out of the dogs by the same blows of the mill bar.
mill-bed n. (a) the base of a mill (obsolete); (b) the cast-iron bed of a machine for breaking flax, expressing oil, etc.
ΚΠ
1399 in Archaeologia (1903) 58 351 (MED) [Two carpenters..mending] le mulbede.
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 406 Fig. 436 represents the section of a mill-bed.
1852 De Bow's Rev. Oct. 391 As the juice runs from the mill-bed, it falls into the first, second, and third strainers, in succession.
mill beetle n. Obsolete a cockroach.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > subclass Pterygota > [noun] > division Exopterygota or Hemimetabola > order Dictyoptera > member of genus Blatta (cockroach)
blatta1601
cockroach1616
mill moth1658
twitch-ballock1757
drummer1764
mill beetle1771
kakkerlak1813
roach1822
twitch-clock1843
twitch-cloga1876
cocky1931
1771 J. R. Forster tr. P. Osbeck Voy. China I. 170 The Mill beetles..annually come in ships from the East Indies.
1839 P. Buchan in Whistle-Binkie 2nd Ser. 118 Like the thud o' a waukin mill beetle.
mill bill n. a steel adze fixed in a wooden handle, used for dressing and cracking millstones; this adze alone (rare).
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > cutting tool > adze > [noun] > for dressing stone > for dressing millstones
mill-pickc1357
mill bill1582
pike1756
millstone pick1853
millstone dresser1854
1582–3 in M. A. Havinden Househ. & Farm Inventories Oxfordshire (1965) 141 Syx mylbyls and two boxing chissels.
1631 J. Winthrop Let. 28 Mar. in Hist. New Eng. (1825) (modernized text) I. App. 381 Bring..mill stones..with bracings ready cast, and rings, and mill-bills.
1897 in Sheffield Trade List 27 Mill Picks and Bills to order.
1999 T. Quinn & P. Felix Last of Line 105 The stones are cut or dressed in two ways: the main furrows Mildred leaves to the millwright; the tiny chisel cuts, or stitching, she makes herself (using what's known as a ‘mill bill’) in the flat areas between the larger grooves.
mill boom n. the barrier of floating timber stretched about a sawmill to retain floating logs.
ΚΠ
1877 Michigan Rep. 35 518 Complainants had a large quantity..of timber..in their mill-boom at East Tawas.
1945 T. H. Raddall Tambour & Other Stories 273 The logger had come from the picking gap above the mill booms.
mill-brack n. Obsolete rare a tear in cloth made during the process of fulling (cf. brack n.1 3).
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > tearing or tearing apart > [noun] > a tear > in cloth
mill-brack1552
1552 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 6 §27 If..Cloth..prove..to be full of Holes, Mill-bracks, or to be holely.
mill bundle n. a parcel of paper tied in one bundle, as delivered from the mill; (in extended use) a batch of materials prepared for or by a manufacturing process.
ΚΠ
1859 Stationer's Handbk. (ed. 2) 74 Bundle of Paper (mill bundle), a parcel of paper tied in one bundle as it comes from the mill.
1993 Metallurgia (Nexis) Oct. (Contact Heat-treatment Suppl.) 2 Frequent examples are tube [sic] in all bore sizes, both in the mill bundle and after complex manipulation.
mill-cake n. (a) the mass resulting from mixing the ingredients in the process of manufacture of gunpowder; (b) linseed cake (rare).
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > ammunition for firearms > [noun] > explosive for use with firearms > in specific form or state
corn-powder1562
train1587
meal-powder1782
green charge1825
gunpowder cake1839
mill-cake1839
presscake1839
pellet powder1868
prismatic powder1869
pebble powder1870
pebble1872
prismatic1894
1839 A. Ure Dict. Arts 629 The mill-cake powder of Waltham Abbey is submitted to a mean theoretic pressure of 70 to 75 tons per superficial foot.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1440/2 Mill-cake,..the mass of hulls and parenchyma remaining after the expression of linseed-oil.
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. III. 2004/1 Runner-ball, (Gunpowder) a wooden disk which crushes the mill-cake through the meshes of the sieves in granulating gunpowder.
1998 G. I. Brown Big Bang ii. 21 The resulting hard mass, called mill-cake or press-cake, could be compacted even further between plates in a hydraulic press, and cake of different densities could be made by altering the duration and intensity of the milling.
mill carriage n. a conveyor for carrying logs to the saw in a sawmill.
ΚΠ
1856 Sci. Amer. 15 Mar. 212 The shaft..as it rotates, gives motion to the saw mill carriage by means of a rack and pinion.]
1862 Sci. Amer. 11 Oct. 238 Both knees of a mill carriage may be operated simultaneously and with an equal movement.
1993 Vancouver Sun (Nexis) 28 Aug. f1 Trees still need to be felled, bucked, hauled to the sawmill and loaded on the mill carriage.
mill case n. Obsolete a chest for holding millstones.
ΚΠ
1594 H. Plat Jewell House 56 The worme..which is found in a mil-case, or where Bakers vse to boult their meale.
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues at Archure A..mill-case; the open chest that holds the mill-stones.
1834 J. R. McCulloch Dict. Commerce (ed. 2) 497/2 Mill cases each 1s. 0d.
mill-cinder n. the slag from the puddling furnace of a rolling mill.
ΚΠ
1869 De Bow's Rev. Aug. 648 Mill-cinder, at $2 50 per ton.
1881 Trans. Amer. Inst. Mining Engineers 1880–1 9 113 Bulldog, a refractory material used as furnace-lining, got by calcining mill-cinder.
1970 Q. Jrnl. Econ. 84 605 For 1880, 1890, and 1900, the values of scrap iron and mill-cinder were readily available.
mill-clack n. (a) = clack n. 3; (also figurative) a noisy or talkative person (obsolete); (b) Heraldry a representation of a mill-clack.
ΘΚΠ
society > communication > indication > insignia > heraldic devices collective > representations of implements > [noun] > mill-clack
mill-clack1264
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill > clapper
mill clapperc1200
clap?c1225
mill-clack1264
clapper1340
clackc1440
clacket1594
knap1622
clacker1636
1264–5 Manorial Documents in Mod. Philol. (1936) 34 54 (MED) Milcloc.
1638 J. Ford Fancies iii. 39 His tongue troules like a Mill-clack.
1694 T. D'Urfey Comical Hist. Don Quixote: Pt. 2nd ii. ii. 19 I was a Babbler, a Mill-clack, and every foot a Hound.
1720 W. R. Chetwood Stock-jobbers ii. i. 16 Hold thy Tongue, thou Mill-Clack, thou Bell-Clapper, thou Water-Fall.
1866 Atlantic Monthly July 99 On his departure, the suppressed tongues went like mill-clacks.
1969 J. Franklyn & J. Tanner Encycl. Dict. Heraldry 232/2 (caption) Azure, a mill-clack fesswise, Or.
mill clapper n. now historical and rare (a) the clapper of a mill, used to shake corn into the millstones; (b) (figurative) (the tongue of) a talkative person, esp. a woman.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill > clapper
mill clapperc1200
clap?c1225
mill-clack1264
clapper1340
clackc1440
clacket1594
knap1622
clacker1636
c1200 ( Latin-Old Eng. Gloss. (Bodl. 730) in Eng. Stud. (1981) 62 205/2 Scarioballum i, mulne cleper.
1692 T. D'Urfey Marriage-hater Match'd i. i. 4 So great an admirer of the eternal Mill-clapper, Mrs. La Pupsey.
1696 P. A. Motteux Love's a Jest ii. 16 My Heart beats like any Mill-clapper.
1774 D. Garrick Christmas Tale i. i. 2 The river is flowing, The mill-clapper going, But the miller's asleep in his mill.
1846 ‘Lord Chief Baron’ Swell's Night Guide (new ed.) 125/2 Mill clapper, a Woman's tongue.
1885 Overland Monthly Aug. 137/2 Then both cried out together, so that it was like listening to a mill clapper.
mill-clow n. [ < mill n.1 + clow n.1] Obsolete a mill-sluice.
ΚΠ
a1250 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Nero) (1952) 31 Auh moni punt hire word uorte leten mo vt. as me deð water etter mulne cluse.
1554 in Trans. E. Lothian Antiquarian & Field Naturalists' Soc. (1958) 7 49 For ane myll clous byggyn in tymmar stayne wark and workmanschip.
1615 in Quarter Sessions Rec. (N. Riding Rec. Soc.) (1884) II. 103 Ric. Cuthbert presented for pulling-up the mill-clowes.
1824 J. Mactaggart Sc. Gallovidian Encycl. 341 Mill-cloose,..the boxed wood-work which conducts the water into mill wheels.
mill-cog n. each of the cogs of the wheel on the driveshaft of a windmill or watermill.
ΚΠ
1664 J. Evelyn Sylva (1729) i. xx. 108 The Wild-cornel or Dog-wood good to make Mill-Cogs, Pestles, [etc.].
1707 J. Mortimer Whole Art Husbandry (1721) II. 42 The Timber is useful for Mill-coggs.
1858 P. L. Simmonds Dict. Trade Products 185/1 Hackia, a wood..used for mill cogs and shafts.
1899 M. J. Cawein Myth & Romance 10 The old mill-wheel, That made the rolling mill-cogs snore and reel.
1955 G. Grigson Englishman's Flora 204 Evelyn recommended the timber..for millcogs, pestles, spikes, and wedges.
mill-course n. rare = mill-race n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > mill-race
mill-troughOE
outshot1362
mill-lead1434
mill fleam1475
mill-race1478
waylead1547
mill-leat1609
waterlead1641
mill-run1652
water lane1718
wash-milla1722
overshot1760
head race1780
mill-course1804
lade1808
wheel-race1825
mill lade1827
dam-
1804 M. Edgeworth Rosanna viii, in Pop. Tales II. 193 The neighbours all joined in restoring the water to the mill-course.
1871 Catholic World Feb. 631/1 The great tide of the Bay of Fundy was sweeping out of the river like a mill-course.
mill dog n. (a) (probably) a dog used to turn a mill; (b) Canadian a kind of clamp for securing logs in a sawmill (in the United States called a sawmill dog).
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Unguiculata or clawed mammal > family Canidae > dogs used for specific purposes > [noun] > that turns mill or spit
mill dog1402
turnspit1576
turnspit cur1603
turnspit dog1625
turnspit terrier1857
1402 Reply Friar Daw Topias in T. Wright Polit. Poems & Songs (1861) II. 53 Thou, as blynde Bayarde, berkest at the mone as an olde mylne dog when he bygynnith to dote.
1793 W. Wordsworth Evening Walk 27 At long intervals the mill-dog's howl.
1855 Sci. Amer. 6 Jan. 132/1 A perspective view of an improvement in saw mill dogs, for which a patent was granted to T. H. Russell, of Taftsville, Vt.]
1877 Lumberman's Gaz. 24 May Parties are attempting to introduce Mill Dogs which are infringements of mine.
1880 Lumberman's Gaz. 28 Jan. A. Rogers..is the inventor and owner of a mill dog.
1894 A. B. Gomme Trad. Games I. 29 The miller's mill-dog lay at the mill-door, And his name was Little Bingo.
mill dust n. fine floury dust thrown out during the process of grinding corn.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > [noun] > siftings or refuse
mill dust1354
roughc1460
overchaving1607
sid1673
grey meal?1771
shag1822
slurry1825
slush1843
slutch1851
1354–5 in H. J. Hewitt Mediaeval Cheshire (1929) 41 (MED) Mulnedust.
1543 B. Traheron tr. J. de Vigo Most Excellent Wks. Chirurg. i. ii. f. 18/1 The place..muste be playstred with floure of barleye, and wyth myldust.
1822 J. M. Good Study Med. I. 257 There can be little doubt that much of the mill-dust..is derived from the powder furnished by these [mill-]stones.
1855 T. B. Read New Pastoral 27 E'en as they bear the mill-dust on their garments.
1996 Star Tribune (Minneapolis) (Electronic ed.) 29 Apr. b1 The Washburn A flour mill in Minneapolis exploded May 2, 1878. Clouds of mill dust suspended in the air acted like gunpowder when ignited; the blast shook the city and killed 18 workers.
mill-eye n. (a) Scottish regional the profits of a mill (obsolete); (b) the opening which conveys meal from the millstones to the meal-bin (rare).
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill > other parts of mills
stooling1558
mill-eye1611
mill-hoop1611
rack-staff1611
breasting1767
hopper-boy1787
paddle1795
cockhead1805
silk1879
looder1881
tollera1884
1611 Brechin Test. II. in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue f. 139 To Alexander Carnegie master of the ground for the ferme of the mylne eie and mylne landis of Balnabrich cropt forsaid xvj bollis meill.
a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 109 Measure the meale therein..just as it commeth from the millne-eye and afore it bee tempsed.
1679 in L. B. Taylor Aberdeen Council Lett. (1961) VI. 167 They will have no les nor the fyft boll of the haill deanrie..and will grant no tacks bot only at that rait and will have the..mylne eyes includit at the same rait.
1755 Session Papers in Sc. National Dict. (1965) VI. (at cited word) A lippie out of the Boll, as the same after grinding falls from the Mill-eye.
1825 ‘J. Nicholson’ Operative Mechanic 147 To find the weight of a quantity of stone equal to the mill-eye.
1893 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Mill-eye, the orifice through which the flour is discharged from the outer-casing which surrounds a pair of millstones.
mill fever n. = byssinosis n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > fever > [noun] > other fevers
fever hectica1398
emitrichie1398
hectic1398
etisie1527
emphysode fever1547
frenzy-fever1613
purple fever1623
prunella1656
marcid fever1666
remittent1693
feveret1712
rheumatic fever1726
milk fever1739
stationary fever1742
febricula1746
milky fever1747
camp-disease1753
camp-fever1753
sun fever1765
recurrent fever1768
rose fever1782
tooth-fever1788
sensitive fever1794
forest-fever1799
white leg1801
hill-fever1804
Walcheren fever1810
Mediterranean fever1816
malignant1825
relapsing fever1828
rose cold1831
date fever1836
rose catarrh1845
Walcheren ague1847
mountain fever1849
mill fever1850
Malta fever1863
bilge-fever1867
Oroya fever1873
hyperpyrexia1875
famine-fever1876
East Coast fever1881
spirillum fevera1883
kala azar1883
black water1884
febricule1887
urine fever1888
undulant fever1896
rabbit fever1898
rat bite fever1910
Rhodesian sleeping sickness1911
sandfly fever1911
tularaemia1921
sodoku1926
brucellosis1930
Rift Valley fever1931
Zika1952
Lassa fever1970
Marburg1983
1850 J. Myles Chapters Life Dundee Factory Boy 24 The cause of this sickness, which is known by the name of the ‘mill fever’, is the pestiferous atmosphere.
1889 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 30 Mar. 704/1 The disturbance of health called ‘mill-fever’, which attacks young hands.
1985 Best's Rev. Sept. 108/2 Dr. Lawrence noted her history of emphysema but added that he could not rule out the possibility of byssinosis, or ‘mill fever’, a chronic industrial disease associated with prolonged inhalation of cotton dust.
mill field n. a field in which a mill is or was situated (now chiefly in place names).
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a1225 ( Bounds (Sawyer 621) in S. E. Kelly Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Pt. 2 (2001) 267 Þonne a be hagan to mylen felda.
a1540 Rental Abbot of Shrewsbury in Trans. Shropshire Archæol. & Nat. Hist. Soc. 6 350 The myll feld.
1650 in Inventories 1537–1756 xi Three colts in the Millfield.
1741 E. Pelham Will in C. T. Brooks Aquidneck 15 (note) An old stone windmill [in] the mill field or upper field.
1999 Scunthorpe Evening Telegr. (Electronic ed.) 4 May The day used to begin with a parade..[which] was headed by a band to the mill field in The Avenue.
mill file n. a type of file used (originally in machine shops) for sharpening saws and blades, and for finishing metals.
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1855 Sci. Amer. 24 Mar. 222 The patent saw filing machine..files every tooth true and smooth, and in the course of one season saves the price of itself in mill files used in a saw mill.
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 605/1 Mill File, a thin flat file used in machine shops for lathe work and draw filing.
1994 Fine Homebuilding Nov. 16/2 Use a flat or round-edge mill file for big teeth, a crosscut file..for general purpose, a..cantasaw file for long-pointed teeth.
mill finish n. the finish of paper, aluminium, etc., not subjected to any extra processing after manufacture.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > material for making paper > paper > [noun] > type of finish
machine finish1879
mill finish1907
1907 C. F. Cross & E. J. Bevan Text-bk. Paper-making (ed. 3) x. 270 In hand-made paper the ‘mill-finish’ is obtained by pressing the sheets of paper one against another.
1952 E. J. Labarre Dict. Paper (ed. 2) 163/2 Mill finish is synonymous with machine finish, and merely indicates that the paper has received its finish on the paper-machine.
1999 BBC Gardeners' World Apr. 84/1 Each size is available in either standard mill finish or smart green powder coat finish.
mill fleam n. [ < mill n.1 + fleam n.2] now historical = mill-race n. (now chiefly in place names: see quot. 1999).
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the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > mill-race
mill-troughOE
outshot1362
mill-lead1434
mill fleam1475
mill-race1478
waylead1547
mill-leat1609
waterlead1641
mill-run1652
water lane1718
wash-milla1722
overshot1760
head race1780
mill-course1804
lade1808
wheel-race1825
mill lade1827
dam-
1475–6 in J. T. Fowler Extracts Acct. Rolls Abbey of Durham (1901) III. 646 Pro le scowrynge medietatis de le mylnfleme.
1486–7 in J. T. Fowler Extracts Acct. Rolls Abbey of Durham (1901) III. 650 Super le mylnfleme.
1841 R. E. Landor Ferryman i. 235 By this watery world Of stranded barges, causeways, mill-fleams, ferries.
1999 Derby Evening Tel. (Nexis) 19 Aug. 3 A stretch of Markeaton Brook called Mill Fleam.
mill-gang n. Weaving the part of the warp formed by a descending and ascending motion of the threads wound round the warping-mill.
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1807 J. Duncan Pract. & Descriptive Ess. Art of Weaving: Pt. I i. 39 The quantity of yarn wound upon the mill, in going from the upper to the lower pins and returning, is generally called by warpers a mill gang.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1440/2 Mill-gang,..that part of the warp which is made by a descending and ascending course of the threads round the warping-mill.
mill-gold n. Obsolete rare gold suitable for milling.
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1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 316 The mill-gold of these veins is usually worth $15, coin, per ounce.
1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 289 The following is the currency and gold value of mill-gold.
millhand n. a worker in a mill or factory.
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society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > [noun] > industrial worker > in mill
millman1551
millhand1619
millworker1835
miller1897
1619 in M. E. Grimwade Index Probate Rec. Court of Archdeaconry (1984) i. 227 Alan Gibbins, mill hand, Long Melford.
1847 Sci. Amer. 17 July 341 We observe by our last English exchanges that numbers of artisans and mill hands were leaving the manufacturing towns in England, for Russia.
1941 W. J. Cash Mind of South iii. ii. 268 The automobile our millhand held on to would commonly be a limping old jaloppy, fit to incite titters downtown.
1995 Up Here (Yellowknife, N.W. Territories) Sept. 41/1 The high-paying jobs as miners, millhands, electricians, mechanics and other tradespeople, were reserved for Southerners.
mill-head n. (a) a reservoir of pent-up water which, when released, turns a watermill; (b) the part of a horse-mill from which the driving gear is suspended.
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1450 in C. Innes Registrum Episcopatus Brechinensis (1856) II. 85 His part of the brygyn of the myl hed.
1652 W. Blith Eng. Improver Improved viii. 43 Such Mills..as are kept up, or dammed so high, as that they boggyfie all the Lands that lye under their Mill-head.
1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. Pl. xviii The mill-head is erected on a floor about seven or eight feet above the ground floor.
1879 Scribner's Monthly July 339 I thought thee was going to jump into the mill-head!
mill-head adj. Obsolete rare = mill-headed adj.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > fastenings > [adjective] > nail > round-headed
round-headed1559
mill-head1790
mill-headed1805
1790 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 80 153 The insertion of a small mill-head key, on a square pin fitted to receive it.
mill-headed adj. Obsolete rare having a milled head.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > equipment > building and constructing equipment > fastenings > [adjective] > nail > round-headed
round-headed1559
mill-head1790
mill-headed1805
1805 Trans. Soc. Arts 23 296 By the help of the mill-headed nut.
mill-holm n. Obsolete the area covered by water held in check by a mill-dam; a meadow adjoining a watermill.
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1587 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1814) III. 480 The lordschip..of Vchiltrie..with..the..milnelandis milne holme.
1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words II. 21 Mill-holm, a small meadow, appurtenant to a water-mill.
mill-hoop n. Obsolete rare = mill case n.
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the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill > other parts of mills
stooling1558
mill-eye1611
mill-hoop1611
rack-staff1611
breasting1767
hopper-boy1787
paddle1795
cockhead1805
silk1879
looder1881
tollera1884
1611 R. Cotgrave Dict. French & Eng. Tongues Archure, a mill-hoope, or mill-case; the open chest that holds the mill-stones.
mill-hopper n. a hopper for corn ready for grinding; also figurative.
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society > occupation and work > equipment > equipment for altering consistency > [noun] > crushing or grinding > parts of
hopperc1405
mill-hopper1568
stamper1602
pug cylinder1839
shoe1874
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > corn-mill > hopper
hopperc1405
trammelc1440
mill-hopper1568
1568 Lichtoun in W. T. Ritchie Bannatyne MS (1928) II. 270 Ane pair of hois maid of ane auld myll hopper.
1833 New Eng. Mag. Aug. 131 I began, proceeded, and completed my enunciation of the verb,..the words running from my tongue like corn from a mill-hopper.
1858 T. Carlyle Hist. Friedrich II of Prussia I. v. vi. 602 A stiff-backed, close-fisted old gentleman, with mill-hopper chin.
1882 J. Smith Canty Jock 55 Yer yatter, yatter, yattering millhapper o' a jaundiced tongue.
mill-iron n. (a) = mill-pick n.; (b) = mill-rind n.
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c1343 in J. T. Fowler Extracts Acct. Rolls Abbey of Durham (1899) II. 543 2 Milnyrenes.
1486 in W. Fraser Red Bk. Grandtully (1868) I. 170 The said myl irnys and vther grath tharof.
1600–2 Montrose Burgh Treasurer's Accts. in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) For the milnyrnis furth of Dundie.
1805 J. Sibley in Deb. Congr. U.S. (1852) II. App. 1100 It is only a few years ago that the mill irons and mill stones were brought down.
1837 W. Jenkins Ohio Gazetteer 276 Large quantities of iron are here manufactured into hollow ware, mill irons, and other articles.
1950 C. W. Scott-Giles Boutell's Heraldry (rev. ed.) vi. 50 The cross moline is said to have derived its name and form from the iron at the centre of a mill-stone, and the charge termed a mill-iron, mill-rind or fer-de-moline, is sometimes represented as a cross moline pierced at the centre.
mill-jade n. Obsolete a mill-horse.
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the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > family Equidae (general equines) > horse defined by purpose used for > [noun] > that turns a piece of machinery
mill-horsec1443
mill-jade1612
whip-horse1677
gin-horse1693
whim-horse1759
well-horse1894
1612 B. Jonson Alchemist iii. iii. sig. G2v Would you haue me stalke like a Mill-Iade, All day, for one, that will not yeeld vs Graynes? View more context for this quotation
mill-knave n. Scottish Obsolete a miller's servant.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > subjection > service > servant > types of servant > [noun] > other types of servant
minstrel?c1225
mill-knavec1380
subdeacona1382
rehetoura1425
daily waiter1519
apparitor1533
Nethinim1535
fealc1650
washpot1678
Sunday outer1837
comprador1840
liveryman1841
running dog1969
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > miller > miller's assistant
mill-knavec1380
pickman1521
pickieman1604
under-miller1825
c1380 in J. Spottiswoode Liber S. Marie de Dryburgh (1847) 274 Adam Milneknave de Carfrae.
1582 in J. Anderson Cal. Laing Charters (1899) 259 We fermoraris of Crummy auchit to scheis the mile knaif of ouir mile at ouir schesing and nocht be schosin be the multraris.
1609 J. Skene tr. Statute William in Regiam Majestatem f. 3 All they quha hes milns..sall haue ane maister, and tua servants mil-knaves.
1728 A. Ramsay Monk & Miller's Wife 140 Mill-knaves..Whase kytes can streek out like raw plaiding.
mill lade n. [ < mill n.1 + lade n.2] = mill-leat n.
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1827 J. Watt Poems 75 Wee sykes a' jowin' like mill-lade.
1868 W. Peard Pract. Water-farming iv. 39 The dangers produced by mill-lades and sluices.
1931 M. E. Angus Turn of Day 14 Joan, Joan the bonnie maid, She rinses claes in the cauld mill-lade.
1989 Scots Mag. Feb. 489 In Scotland, eels used to be the perk of the miller, and there were often traps on mill lades.
mill-lead n. [ < mill n.1 + lead n.2] = mill-leat n.
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1434 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1814) 22 That the breif..haf cours..alanerly of watter gangis that is to 'say of miln leidis.
1609 J. Skene tr. Chalmerlane Air in Regiam Majestatem c. 11 §4 Myllers..take the fry, or smolts of salmon, in the mylne dame or lead, contrair the ordinance of the law.
1897 Daily News 21 Apr. 6/2 The water flowing in the mill-lead.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 21/2 To the east may be traced the site of the abbey mill, with its dam and mill-lead.
mill lodge n. a millpond.
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1891 Jrnl. Oldham Microsc. Soc. May 101 The shades of green in our mill-lodges are continually changing.
1891 Morning Post 23 Dec. 3/2 A number of boys were skating on a mill lodge at Stubbins, near Bury.
mill log n. chiefly U.S. a log cut at a sawmill.
ΚΠ
1795 T. B. Hazard Diary (1930) 171/2 I helpt brother Robert flote mill logs to mill.
1849 D. Nason Jrnl. 99 I asked the guide if there were any mill-logs among it.
1998 Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times (Nexis) 28 Apr. e1 (caption) Mike Gonce runs a hand saw to mill logs for Battle Creek Log Homes.
mill mail n. Obsolete a fee paid for grinding corn.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > fees and taxes > payment for privilege > [noun] > of grinding corn
toll-corn12..
mill mail1287
multure?a1300
knaveshipa1350
multure corn1546
moliture1656
intown multure1818
1287 in W. Brown Yorks. Inquisitions (1902) I. 61 [In Newland] milnemale [6d.].
1496 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1869) I. 71 With the myln males as said.
1692 in J. D. Marwick Rec. Convent. Royal Burghs Scotl. (1880) IV. 633 The miln mealls.
mill money n. now historical money coined in the mill and press, not struck with the hammer (cf. mill sixpence n., mill-tester n.).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > [noun] > milled and pressed coin
mill moneya1625
a1625 F. Beaumont & J. Fletcher Captaine i. iii, in Comedies & Trag. (1647) sig. Gg/2 Only to live to make their children scourge-sticks, And hoord up mill-money.
1718 in G. Lamoine Charges to Grand Jury (1992) 101 As to Mill-money, its High Treason to make or assist in making Puncheons, Edgers, or other Tools, for the coyning of Mill'd-money.
1931 C. Oman Coinage of Eng. xxvii. 279 The first ‘mill money’ had been struck in Paris ten years before (1552) for King Henry II.
mill moth n. (originally) a type of moth whose larvae feed on grain; (now) spec. the flour moth, Ephestia kuehniella (family Pyralidae).
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the world > animals > invertebrates > phylum Arthropoda > class Insecta > subclass Pterygota > [noun] > division Exopterygota or Hemimetabola > order Dictyoptera > member of genus Blatta (cockroach)
blatta1601
cockroach1616
mill moth1658
twitch-ballock1757
drummer1764
mill beetle1771
kakkerlak1813
roach1822
twitch-clock1843
twitch-cloga1876
cocky1931
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 998 There are three sorts of Blattæ; the soft Moth, the mill Moth, and the unsavoury or stinking Moth.
1857 F. Gerhard Illinois as it Is 256 The prairie teems with grasshoppers and crickets, and many a dwelling is pestered with mill-moths (Blatta).
1977 G. Vevers tr. H. Mourier & O. Winding Collins Guide Wild Life House & Home 64/1 Mill moth larvae prefer wheat flour, but will also feed on all sorts of grains, cereals, seeds, macaroni, dried fruits, cocoa, nuts and almonds.
mill ore n. Mining metallic ore suitable for stamping or crushing.
ΚΠ
1874 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 292 The stamp-mill ore is passed through the mill belonging to the mine.]
1876 H. T. Williams Pacific Tourist 187/2 The assay determines its fineness and value, which is stamped upon it, and it is then shipped and sold. It goes into the mill ore from the mine, and comes out silver in bars.
1999 Mining Jrnl. (Nexis) 14 May 365 The new reserve figures assume a cut-off grade of 0.67 g/t Au (recovered) for the mill ore.
mill pin n. Obsolete or rare (a) (probably) = mill spindle n.; (b) Heraldry a representation of this.
ΚΠ
1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. cccxxv. 507 Sir George of Besmede..bare in his armes syluer, a myllpyn gowles, a border endented gowles.
1611 T. Ravenscroft Melismata sig. Fiv When she came to the merry mill pin, humble dum, humble dum, Lady Mouse beene you within? tweedle, tweedle twino.
mill pit n. Obsolete a millpond.
ΚΠ
c1450 Treat. Fishing in J. McDonald et al. Origins of Angling (1963) 163 Weeres, flode gates, and mylle pittes.
1666 J. Bunyan Grace Abounding §198 I did liken myself..unto..a child that was fallen into a mill-pit, who, though it could make some shift to scrabble and sprawl in the water, yet [etc.].
mill-pot n. Obsolete (a) the part of a water channel below the mill-wheel; (b) a type of basket designed to capture and retain fish.
ΚΠ
1470 in Cal. Writs Yester House (1930) 69 Behynd the myln pot.
1630 Order in R. Griffiths Ess. Jurisdict. Thames (1746) 66 No Fisherman..shall use..any Weel called a Lomb, or a Mill-Pot, or any other Engine, with the Head thereof against the Stream.
1795 Session Papers in Sc. National Dict. (1965) VI. (at cited word) The awes of the wheels were not above three-eighths of an inch from the sole or bottom of the mill-pot.
mill power n. water power for driving a mill; a source of this; (also) a unit for measuring such water power in terms of the rate of fall of water.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > energy or power of doing work > [noun] > capacity for exertion of mechanical force > water-power
water power?c1700
mill power1833
1833 Chambers' Edinb. Jrnl. 22 June 167/3 This stream..at some after time may be turned to account as a mill power.
1903 Trans. Amer. Soc. Mech. Engin. 24 983 Wherever water~power is sold it is customary to use the turbines as meters... From tables and curves made up from..tests of..turbines,..data are obtained from which to compute the actual discharge. This is referred to a given head and thence reduced to mill-powers, the values of which vary with the locality.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XIV. 92/2 A mill-power is defined as 38 cub. ft. of water per sec. during 16 hours per day on a fall of 20 ft. This gives about 60 h.p. effective.
1991 Sci. Amer. May 67/1 They often included an estimate of how many mills it [sc. a stream] would operate... One might say that they assessed streams for ‘mill power’.
mill privilege n. U.S. (now historical) the privilege of using water for driving a mill (see privilege n. 9).
ΚΠ
1734 in H. H. Metcalf & O. G. Hammond Probate Rec. New Hampsh. (1914) II. 508 I also give unto my son..the one half of my mill Priviledge on the southerly side of ye River at Lole-End.
1892 12th Rep. Vermont State Board Agric. 1891–2 134 Many mill privileges with excellent water power are afforded.
1994 Amer. Hist. Rev. 99 694 A change of seigneur could lead to changes in agents, notaries, and their practices, and it often determined who obtained specific mill-privileges or timber rights.
mill process n. a process involving milling (milling n.1 1, 2).
ΚΠ
1854 H. N. Humphreys Coinage Brit. Empire 113 They are exceedingly well executed by the mill process, and have the laureated bust of the protector, with olivar. d.g. [etc.].
1897 Overland Monthly Feb. 202/1 They have a large amount of gravel that will pay from three dollars to five dollars per ton, mill process.
2000 Arizona Republic (Nexis) 21 Feb. d2 In 1813, the Boston Manufacturing Co. of Waltham, Mass., began operating the first cotton mill with the entire mill process under one roof.
mill puff n. a kind of flock used for stuffing mattresses, etc.
ΚΠ
1624 in J. S. Moore Clifton & Westbury Probate Inventories (1981) 35 A smalle feather Bedd praisd with the bolster bellonging to it..a Mill puffe Bed..together with a feather bolster.
1741 in J. S. Moore Goods & Chattels Forefathers (1976) 285 One bedstead and Green Print furniture, a Milpuff Bed and Bolster.
1851 Official Descriptive & Illustr. Catal. Great Exhib. III. 496/1 Specimens of mattress-wools, woollen millpuffs, and flocks.
1989 S. Mills & P. Riemer Mills of Gloucestershire ii. 76 (caption) Merrets Mill was used as a cloth mill but was later turned over to the production of flock, shoddy and mill puff.
mill ream n. Papermaking a ream of handmade or mould-made paper consisting of 472 sheets.
ΚΠ
1859 Stationers' Handbk. (ed. 2) 101 A ream of writing paper..is required to contain 18 quires of 24 good sheets and 2 quires of 20 sheets of outsides,..472 sheets in all, good and bad—this is called a mill ream.
1960 G. A. Glaister Gloss. Bk. 257/2 Mill ream, 472 sheets of hand-made or mould-made paper, good or retree.
mill-reek n. originally and chiefly Scottish Obsolete a disease to which workers in lead mines were subject, arising from the poisonous fumes of the smelting furnaces.
ΚΠ
1754 J. Wilson in Ess. & Observ. (Philos. Soc. Edinb.) I. 459 The disease which the people at Leadhills call the mill-reek.
1845 New Statist. Acct. Scotl. VI. 335 The men engaged in reducing the ores are occasionally seized with the painters' colic, or..‘mill-reek’.
mill right n. U.S. the right of using water for driving a mill.
ΚΠ
1794 Coll. Mass. Hist. Soc. 1st Ser. III. 147 The principal object of the original settlers being lumber, more attention was paid to mill-rights than to the soil.
1847 W. I. Paulding Antipathies iii. iii, in J. K. & W. I. Paulding Amer. Comedies 262 There's a man at Jack O'Lantern's that owns land and mill-rights.
1869 De Bow's Rev. Sept. 802 We have received many accounts of mill rights and water power.
mill ring n. (a) the meal scattered around a millstone, regarded as a perquisite of the miller; (b) the dust of a mill (obsolete rare); (c) the space in a mill between the runner and the frame surrounding it.Sense (b) is apparently only attested in dictionaries or glossaries.
ΚΠ
1801 Farmer's Mag. Apr. 217 It was from observing, that the tacksman of a mill, who was a horse-dealer, gave all his mill ring (i.e. the corn which fills the mill-stones when newly picked) along with potatoes, that I learned to mix the great or coarse bran with that valuable root.
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Mill-ring, the dust of a miln.
1825 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. Suppl. (at cited word) Mill-ring, the open space in a mill between the runner and the wooden frame surrounding it.
1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 136 A workman, in making an excavation near the mill-ring, came on a large, flat stone, aneath which were the remains of a clay urn.
1995 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 14 Jan. 11 The former mill ring, for example, now forms an impressive circular living room in the largest dwelling.
mill sail n. a sail on a windmill.
ΚΠ
c1450 in R. H. Robbins Hist. Poems 14th & 15th Cent. (1959) 202 (MED) Oure myllesaylle will not a-bowte, Hit hath so long goon emptye.
1799 Hull Advertiser 12 Oct. 2/1 Mill sails, waggon, cart, and stack covers.
1876 G. W. Thornbury Hist. & Legendary Ballads & Songs 208 The mill-sails wild are tossing, Like a spirit's arms on high.
1996 Independent (Electronic ed.) 6 Nov. 15 Mill sails rarely exceeded 80 feet in diameter and the total height of the structure was little more than this.
mill-sail-shaped adj. rare shaped like a mill-sail.
ΚΠ
1835 J. Lindley Introd. Bot. (1839) iii. Gloss. 451 Mill-sail-shaped; having many wings projecting from a convex surface; as the fruit of some umbelliferous plants.
mill saw n. a saw for use in a sawmill.
ΚΠ
1790 Pennsylvania Packet 2 Jan. To be sold by Poultney and Wistar..Mill, crosscut,..and keyhole saw.
1856 ‘M. Twain’ Let. 14 Nov. in Adventures T. J. Snodgrass (1928) 25 Everybody was a bobbin up and down like a mill saw.
1897 E. W. Brodhead Bound in Shallows 66 All the mill saws were silent.
1994 T. C. Gillmer Hist. Working Watercraft (ed. 2) ii. 77 This skiff has only three planks per side—often unfinished with the mill saw marks still showing.
mill saw file n. a file used for sharpening mill saws.
ΚΠ
1846 C. Holtzapffel Turning & Mech. Manip. II. 689 The files used in sharpening saws are triangular, round, half-round, and mill saw-files.
1897 in Sheffield Trade List 15 Mill Saw Files, one round edge.
mill saw web n. the blade of a mill saw.
ΚΠ
1846 C. Holtzapffel Turning & Mech. Manip. II. 725 The mill-saw webs [are used] for cutting deals into thin boards.
1897 in Sheffield Trade List 15 Mill Saw Webs.
mill scale n. Metallurgy a coating of iron oxide formed on iron or steel during hot working.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > materials produced from metalworking > [noun] > film of oxide
scale1526
mill scale1880
forge-scale1883
1880 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 357/1 During rolling this film [of oxide] becomes somewhat thick and peels off, forming ‘mill-scale’.
1940 E. N. Simons & E. Gregory Steel Manuf. xvi. 109 The charge consists of steel scrap and grey phosphoric..to which are added millscale..or iron ore, and lime or limestone.
1984 E. P. DeGarmo et al. Materials & Processes in Manuf. (ed. 6) xiv. 346 The surfaces of hot-rolled products are, of course, slightly rough and covered with a tenacious high-temperature oxide known as mill scale.
mill seat n. North American (now historical) = mill site n.
ΚΠ
1759 H. Mercer Let. 12 May in H. Bouquet Papers (1941) 127 We..have discovered a fine mill-seat on the south side the Monongehela.
1796 P. Russell Corr. (1932) I. 10 Read the Petition of John Laurence Esquire, praying for a Mill Seat on the River Humber.
a1817 T. Dwight Trav. New-Eng. & N.-Y. (1821) II. 27 Directly under the bridge commences a romantic fall, which..furnishes a number of excellent mill-seats.
1838 Biblical Repertory Apr. 318 Some Peter Bell, to whom every enamelled meadow is but a pasture ground, and every cataract a mill-seat?
1863 C. M. Day Pioneers of Eastern Townships 127 The peculiar advantage of the situation consisted in its containing the only mill seat within several miles.
1978 A. F. C. Wallace Rockdale i. 4 The mills themselves were small, scattered along the creek at the several mill seats.
mill-seeds n. husks of corn with particles of meal adhering to them (cf. seed n. 1e).
ΚΠ
1802 C. Findlater Gen. View Agric. County of Peebles 44 These shells, thus separated, and having the finer particles of meal adhering to them, called mill-seeds, are preserved for sowins.
mill shaft n. (a) a metal shaft used for driving machinery in a mill; (b) a tall chimney of a manufacturing mill.
ΚΠ
1833 J. Holland Treat. Manuf. Metal II. 141 Turning very large articles, such as the outsides of cylinders, mill-shafts, cannon, &c.
1898 Daily News 21 Nov. 8/6 We should stir ourselves, and clap the stopper on these belching mill-shafts.
1991 Jrnl. Econ. Perspectives 5 iii. 13 An English court found that the party who received a broken mill shaft for repair could not foresee that the mill would close pending its return.
mill site n. a site of or suitable for a mill (originally a watermill); (Canadian) a lot granted to a person for the purpose of building and operating a flour-mill (now historical).
ΚΠ
1825 Colonial Advocate (York, Upper Canada) 29 Dec. 3/3 There is also unoccupied Mill-Scites on the Credit..sufficient to drive a number of Mills.
1896 C. H. Shinn Story of Mine 81 Water claims and mill sites were taken up almost as soon as work had fairly begun on the Comstock.
1956 H. Evans Mountain Dog 107 Earth and stones had been bulldozed to the water's edge to form a millsite.
1992 C. Giles & I. H. Goodall Yorks. Textile Mills ii. 17/1 Most loomshops had fireplaces for heating by open fires or stoves, but steam heating was subsequently introduced to some of those on mill sites.
mill sixpence n. Obsolete a silver sixpence of a type made using the mill machinery at the Royal Mint in London between 1561 and 1571.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > coins collective > English coins > [noun] > sixpence
tester1560
half-shilling1561
teston1577
mill sixpence1592
crinklepouch1593
sixpencea1616
testrila1616
piga1640
sice1660
Simon1699
sow's-baby1699
kick1725
cripple1785
grunter1785
tilbury1796
tizzy1804
tanner1811
bender1836
lord of the manor1839
snid1839
sprat1839
fiddler1846
sixpenny bit or piece1897
zac1898
sprasey1905
1592 T. Nashe Strange Newes f. Hv A ropemaker..had turnd as many Mill sixpences ouer the thumbe, as kept three of his sonnes at Cambridge a long time.
1602 W. Shakespeare Merry Wives of Windsor i. i. 142 Seuen groats in mill sixpences.
1639 J. Mayne Citye Match ii. iii. 14 Had I..but forty Mark..And were that fortie Mark Mil sixpences, I would despise you.
mill spindle n. a vertical shaft supporting the runner of a flour mill.
ΚΠ
a1325 Gloss. W. de Bibbesworth (Cambr.) (1929) 438 (MED) E le ble est molu par le fusil [glossed] mulne spinel.
1423 in Archaeologia Cantiana (1880) 13 562 Payde to Dawne Smyth for makyng of the mylspyndyll.
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. III. 2585/2 Toe, the lower end of a vertical shaft, as a mill-spindle, which rests in a step, or ink.
1989 Jrnl. Econ. Hist. 49 1053 With the Davison directory lacking information on the age distribution of mill spindles she is forced to rely on mill age as proxy for the vintage of installed equipment.
millstaff n. an oak staff designed to test the flat face of a millstone.
ΚΠ
1880 R. Jefferies Round about Great Estate 166 He laid down the millpeck, and took his millstaff to prove the work he had done.
1969 G. E. Evans Farm & Village xiv. 148 You have to be sure first of all that before you use the stone it is absolutely flat. For this you use a laminated piece of wood called a millstaff.
mill stank n. Scottish Obsolete rare a millpond.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > lake > pond > [noun] > which drives mill
mill-troughOE
mill-poolOE
mill stankc1430
miller-pita1500
millpond1697
hammer-pond1887
c1430 Acts Parl. Scotl. (1844) I. 334/2 Thai [sc. millers] tak smoltis in the myll stank.
millstock n. (a) a fulling-stock (obsolete); (b) the stock or implements of a mill.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > treating or processing textile fabric > [noun] > fulling > mallet or staff
perchc1300
perka1425
waulk-stock1434
millstock1546
waulking-staff1678
wool-stock1858
1546 in W. H. Turner Select. Rec. Oxf. (1880) 182 For carege of one myllstock for the fullyng myll.
1661 W. Petty in T. Birch Hist. Royal Soc. (1756) I. 61 The mill-stock being wrapt up warm, that the cloth may not cool.
1869 De Bow's Rev. May 445 Mr. Coleman repairs all kinds of mills, and can furnish all the mill stock that may be required.
1964 Jrnl. Animal Ecol. 33 538 Numbers of adults of C. turcicus were positively correlated with the average moisture content of the millstocks. Heaviest infestations occurred in the least nutritious flours.
1998 Paper Focus May 12/2 Large orders of three tonnes or more are available on..a maximum seven days from mill stock.
millstream n. a mill-race (see also quot. 1975); also figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > mill stream
millstreama1170
a1170 (?OE) Bounds (Sawyer 1208) in S. E. Kelly Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Pt. 1 (2001) 116 Of hlippen ham in to þam mylestreame [a1225 milestreame], of þam mylestreame innan þa norð lange dic.
1658 Lease in Notes & Queries 14 Mar. 212/2 4 Putt Gallaries, or shedds, built over the mill stream.
1794 S. T. Coleridge Parl. Oscillators 33 Both plunged together in the deep mill-stream.
1815 D. Drake Nat. & Statist. View Cincinnati i. 58 In summer and autumn, it [sc. Licking River] is a moderate mill-stream.
1885 Cent. Mag. May 130/2 A small mill-stream, forty or fifty feet wide, with swampy lowland bordering on either side.
1975 J. B. Harley Ordnance Survey Maps iii. 44 In Ordnance Survey usage the term ‘mill race’ is given to the water leading to a mill, and ‘mill stream’ to the water leaving it.
1997 Oxoniensia 61 294 This type of mill [sc. a straddle mill] literally straddles the mill stream, with the water flowing through two arches underneath the mill.
mill-tester n. Obsolete rare a tester coined in a mill.
ΚΠ
1636 W. Davenant Witts i. i. sig. B3v His wives Bracelet of Mill-Testers!
mill timber n. (a) timber suitable for or treated in a sawmill; (b) a thick piece of timber used as a prop in a mill.
ΚΠ
1575 in F. G. Emmison Essex Wills (1994) (modernized text) IX. 98 To my wife all my mill timber that is without and my mill tools.
1670 J. Evelyn Sylva (ed. 2) vii. 43 The Chess-nut affords the best Stakes and Poles for Palisades:..Also for Mill-timber and Water-works.
1732 True State Case between Brit. Northern-colonies & Sugar Islands Amer. 17 The French now furnish themselves with Cooperage and Mill-Timber..from their own Islands.
1804 Naval Chron. 11 156 Laden with mahogany and mill-timber.
1824 J. Mactaggart Sc. Gallovidian Encycl. 26 My theebanes war then like milltimmers.
1934 T. A. Harper Windy Island 193 Open up immense bodies of mill timber.
2000 Belfast Tel. (Nexis) 27 June The wonderful beetling mill timbers which hold up the roof..[are] from Dunadry Bleach Works.
mill tooth n. Obsolete a molar tooth.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > digestive or excretive organs > digestive organs > mouth > types or spec. teeth > [noun] > molar
wang-tootha1000
molara1350
cheek tooth1395
grinder1398
wangc1405
gumc1420
axle-tooth1483
wall-tooth?a1500
gum-tooth1535
chock-tooth1591
jaw-tooth1601
chaw-tooth1678
mill tooth1731
molendinar1823
true molar1825
false molar1827
premolar1842
bicuspid1876
1731 J. Arbuthnot Ess. Nature Aliments vi. 101 The best Instruments..for cracking of hard Substances..[are] Grinders or Mill-Teeth.
1890 New Sydenham Soc. Lexicon Mill tooth, a molar tooth.
mill town n. [attested earlier in place names: see quots.] (a) Scottish a set of buildings or hamlet adjoining a mill; (b) a town characterized by the presence of a manufacturing mill or mills.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > town > [noun] > town with other industry or occupation
mill town1491
mining townc1827
lumber town1880
cow-town1885
company town1907
lOE List of Sureties, Peterborough in A. J. Robertson Anglo-Saxon Charters (1956) 76 Þonne is þer borhhand..Ætlebrant æt Pilesgeate, & Cnut & Styrcyr on Uptune, & Boia on Mylatune [sc. Milton Park, Northants.].
c1240 in J. Dowden Chartulary Abbey of Lindores (1903) 42 In uilla que dicitur Mylnetoun.
a1300 in C. Innes Registrum de Dunfermelyn (1842) 115 Ardlather que nunc vocatur milnetun.]
1491 in Acts Lords of Council Civil Causes (1839) I. 194/2 Þe franktennement of þe landis..& þe myltoune of Concragy.
1701 Burnett Family Papers in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue (at cited word) That the tennent..[of] the new miln..have liberty to cast doviots for the bigging of the said milntoun.
c1800 Knight & Shepherd's Daughter in F. J. Child Eng. & Sc. Pop. Ballads (1956) II. 471 As they rade bye yon bonny mill-town.
1847 D. P. Thompson Locke Amsden x. 199 [The paper] came into town all damp from the press of Mill-Town Emporium.
1902 S. E. White Blazed Trail xxi. 155 He arrived out of breath in a typical little mill town.
1980 D. K. Cameron Willie Gavin v. 43 It passed the door of the old milltoun, a farmstead now with steep, hill-hung fields.
2000 Guardian 6 May 6/4 (headline) Trouble at mill towns as Labour loses in Lancashire.
mill-trough n. (a) a conduit carrying the water to a mill-wheel; (b) a corn-bin (obsolete).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > stream > [noun] > mill-race
mill-troughOE
outshot1362
mill-lead1434
mill fleam1475
mill-race1478
waylead1547
mill-leat1609
waterlead1641
mill-run1652
water lane1718
wash-milla1722
overshot1760
head race1780
mill-course1804
lade1808
wheel-race1825
mill lade1827
dam-
the world > the earth > water > lake > pond > [noun] > which drives mill
mill-troughOE
mill-poolOE
mill stankc1430
miller-pita1500
millpond1697
hammer-pond1887
OE Harley Gloss. (1966) 50 Canalis, þruh, uel mylentroh.
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 338 Mylle trow or benge, farricapsa.
1530 J. Palsgrave Lesclarcissement 245/1 Myll troughe or broke, auge.
c1728 A. Ramsay Wks. (1961) III. 205 Ther was nae noise, but mill-trows roaring.
1893 R. O. Heslop Northumberland Words Mill-trou, the spout carrying water to a mill wheel.
mill village n. a village characterized by the presence of a manufacturing mill or mills.
ΘΚΠ
society > inhabiting and dwelling > inhabited place > district in relation to human occupation > town as opposed to country > village > [noun] > other types of village
post village1673
mill village1834
lake-settlement1863
pile village1863
lake-village1865
lake-hamlet1878
pile settlement1878
garden village1892
tree-village1901
model village1906
street village1928
strategic hamlet1963
1834 Norfolk Advertiser & Independent Politician (Dedham, Mass.) 25 Jan. 3/6 (advt.) Trescott & Boyden, Mill Village, Dedham, have been appointed agents for welling the..Pills.
1863 A. D. T. Whitney Faith Gartney's Girlhood xxiii. 218 It needs just such a man [as minister] among mill-villages like these, he says.
1927 New Republic 21 Sept. 115/1 The lowest wages are usually found in the isolated mill villages of the farther South.
2000 Providence (Rhode Island) Jrnl.-Bull. (Nexis) 25 May 12 l Stockar..lives in the mill village of Shannock.
mill-wand n. regional Obsolete a rod which is slotted through the hole in a millstone in order to move it like a wheel.
ΚΠ
1612 in P. C. D. Brears Yorks. Probate Inventories 1542–1689 (1972) 72 Item one milne Ashtree a mill wand and a milne whipp.
1848 Edinb. Topogr., Trad., & Antiquarian Mag. 1 55 A mill-stone was conveyed from the quarry to the mill, by means of a rod, or beam of wood, called the mill-wand.
millwash n. rare (probably) = mill-tail n.
ΚΠ
1861 W. Longstaffe in Siege Pontefract Castle Introd. 17 An old bridge over the millwash.
mill-way n. Obsolete a road leading to a mill.
ΘΚΠ
society > travel > means of travel > route or way > way, path, or track > [noun] > leading to specific places
mill-wayOE
churchwayOE
city ways1568
OE Bounds (Sawyer 99) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1885) I. 240 Ærest of Turcanwyllas heafde andlang stræte on Cynelmesstan on Mylenweg.
c1325 in W. Kennett Parochial Antiq. (1818) I. 566 (MED) Item una acra apud le mulnewey.
?1592 J. Manwood Brefe Coll. Lawes Forest 120 If any man haue stopped or strayted any Church-way, mylle-way, or other waies in the Forest or Purleu..you shall doe vs to weete thereof.
1641 New Haven Col. Rec. 52 Their upland [is] on the right hand of the mill way.
1868 N. Amer. Rev. Jan. 16 The flats were filled in, the creeks were dammed up, the channels were bridged, the marsh was turned into meadow, the brooks into mill-ways.
millworker n. a person who works at or in a mill.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > [noun] > industrial worker > in mill
millman1551
millhand1619
millworker1835
miller1897
1835 A. Ure Philos. Manuf. 348 An astonishing difference between their intelligence and that of the mill~workers.
1895 Daily News 3 Sept. 2/4 The strike of thirty thousand millworkers in Dundee.
1993 N.Y. Times 19 Oct. a1/1 Champion is pulling out of Montana, leaving behind hundreds of unemployed mill workers.
mill-yair n. [ < mill n.1 + yair n.] Obsolete an enclosure extending into a millpond or millstream, for catching fish.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > lake > pond > [noun] > which drives mill > part of
mill-yaireOE
eOE Estate Boundaries, Nunnaminster, Winchester in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1887) II. 305 Up of þæm forda on þone westmestan mylengear westweardne.
eOE Bounds (Sawyer 495) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1887) II. 541 Þonan suðrihte on ðone ealdan mylier þær þa welegas standað.
a1225 ( Bounds (Sawyer 620) in S. E. Kelly Charters of Abingdon Abbey, Pt. 2 (2001) 309 On ðone mulen ger, þonan &lang ðære mylen dic.
mill-yemer n. [ < mill n.1 + yemer n.] Obsolete a person who has the custody of a mill.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > [noun] > miller
millwardeOE
millerOE
meal-maker1274
windmillward1314
dusty-poll?1518
mill-yemer1530
water miller1533
windmiller1533
pikeman1551
milleress1680
corn-grinder1841
1530 in J. Allen Hist. Liskeard (1856) 268 Millemers and downemers.
1604–5 in J. Allen Hist. Liskeard (1856) 234 Le millheymers and downheymers.

Derivatives

ˈmill-like adj.
ΚΠ
1639 T. Bancroft Two Bks. Epigrammes & Epit. i. sig. D3 Thou with wind Thy Mill-like frame dost move.
1854 Poultry Chron. 1 148 The ‘mill-like motion of the gizard’.
1918 Mrs. E. Liddell in J. Gott Lett. 66 Here is a man who, alike in the mill-like grinding of life in Leeds..and amid the urgent claims of a diocese, always found time to love and to remember.
2000 Los Angeles Times (Nexis) 1 Feb. b3 Jeffrey..stared at a small plaque with his name that he made on a mill-like machine.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online June 2022).

milln.2

Forms: late Middle English–1500s myll.
Origin: Of unknown origin.
Etymology: Origin unknown. Compare miling n.1 and miled adj.
Obsolete.
= orphrey n. 2.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > ornamental textiles > ornamental trimmings > [noun] > bordering or edging
fasc950
wloc950
hemc1000
hemminga1300
borderc1374
mill1388
purfling1388
orphrey?a1425
wainc1440
millc1450
selvage1481
edge1502
bordering1530
screed1788
German hemming1838
1388 Inventory Westm. Abbey in Archaeologia (1890) 52 213 The blew myllyse do serve for boyth the vygylles of seynt Edward synglarly.
1538–9 Inventory Westm. Abbey in Trans. London & Middlesex Archæol. Soc. (1873) 4 iii. 329 ij tunycles without stolles and phanams of blewe velvett enbrotheryd with anteloppes and mylles of gold.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online December 2020).

milln.3

Forms: late Middle English–1500s mylle, 1500s mil, 1500s mille, 1500s myll, 1500s–1600s mill.
Origin: A borrowing from French. Etymon: French mil.
Etymology: < Middle French mil millet (late 11th cent. in Old French; now French regional) < classical Latin milium millet (see milium n.1). Compare Middle Dutch mil , also a borrowing < French. Compare earlier mile n.2
Obsolete.
1.
a. Millet, Panicum miliaceum.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile fabric or an article of textile fabric > ornamental textiles > ornamental trimmings > [noun] > bordering or edging
fasc950
wloc950
hemc1000
hemminga1300
borderc1374
mill1388
purfling1388
orphrey?a1425
wainc1440
millc1450
selvage1481
edge1502
bordering1530
screed1788
German hemming1838
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular food plant or plant product > cereal, corn, or grain > [noun] > millet > Indian millet > Indian millet plant or panicle
millc1450
millet1548
Saracen's corn1585
sorghum1597
Guinea corn1697
whisk1757
broom-straw1785
kaffir corn1785
jowari1800
jowar1801
chicken corna1817
broom corn1819
mabela1824
cholum1858
Texas millet1858
dura1882
pearl millet1887
kaoliang1904
proso1907
milo1920
c1450 tr. Secreta Secret. (Royal) 32 (MED) The phisiciens..seiden that who so ete the graynes of whijt mylle..it profitith moche.
1525 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Chron. ii. ccxxiii. [ccxix.] 697 Bredde, made of a grayne called mylle.
1540 R. Jonas tr. E. Roesslin Byrth of Mankynde i. f. xviv Ryse myll, and many other thynges.
1541 T. Elyot Castel of Helthe (new ed.) 10 b Meates inflatynge or wyndye: Beanes:..Mille: Cucumbers.
1610 W. Folkingham Feudigraphia i. xi. 35 Tare, Cich and Mill loue moisture.
1660 F. Brooke tr. V. Le Blanc World Surveyed 323 They..get Mill, Rice, Pulse, and other graine.
b. Turkey mill n. sorghum, Sorghum bicolor. Cf. Turkey millet at millet n.1 2.
ΚΠ
1597 J. Gerard Herball i. 77 It is called..Turkie Mill or Turkie Hirsse.
2. In full mill of the sun [after post-classical Latin milium solis (see milium solis n.)] . Gromwell, Lithospermum officinale. Cf. milium solis n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > particular plants > cultivated or valued plants > particular medicinal plants or parts > [noun] > gromwell
gromwella1350
millensole1545
graymill1548
mill of the sun1559
common gromwell1578
corn gromwell1578
pearl plant1578
lithospermon1646
milium solis?c1729
purple gromwell1783
stone-weed1847
lithosperm1865
1559 P. Morwyng tr. C. Gesner Treasure of Euonymus 139 Take the rotes of fenell..mill of the sunne, scariolæ, of everye one like much.
1562 W. Turner 2nd Pt. Herball f. 40 Lithospermon..is called gray mil..to put a difference betwene it and the other mile or millet.

Compounds

mill-seed n. = millet seed n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > corn, cereals, or grain > [noun] > millet
millet?a1425
mill-seed1548
millet seed1567
couscous1596
dew-grass1597
Turkey hirse1597
Turkey mill1597
Turkey millet1597
milly1600
espauta1682
durra1803
Negro-corn1858
dari1892
1548 T. Cooper Bibliotheca Eliotæ (rev. ed.) at Cenchrites A precious stone, whyche hath in it thynges lyke myll seede.
1600 J. Pory tr. J. Leo Africanus Geogr. Hist. Afr. vii. 291 Fields, which yeeld..great store of barlie and mill-seed.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online September 2021).

milln.4

Forms: 1600s mil, 1600s–1700s mill.
Origin: Probably formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mill v.2
Etymology: Probably < mill v.2 Compare later mill-ken n.
Obsolete cant.
1. A thief, a housebreaker. Cf. mill-ken n.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > burglar > [noun]
housebreakera1400
burglary1533
burglar1541
burglarer1598
mill1607
mill-ken1667
hoister1708
crack1749
cracksman1819
screwsman1819
screwer1831
crib-cracker1879
cracker1886
key worker1895
houseman1904
home invader1907
in and out man1961
1607 T. Dekker & G. Wilkins Iests to make you Merie sig. G2 A word or two of the mill, quasi breakehouse.
1607 T. Dekker & G. Wilkins Iests to make you Merie 43 A strong Iron barre made sharpe at one end, and they which trade with that, are called Mils.
1676 Warning for House-keepers (title page) Thieves and Robbers which go under these titles, viz. the Gilter, the Mill, the Glasier [etc.].
2. A chisel or similar implement used for housebreaking.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > burglary > [noun] > instruments used by burglars
tricker1591
mill1607
iron1681
Betty1700
centre-bit1746
rook1788
jemmy1811
roundabout1811
James1819
jimmy1848
stick1848
Jack-in-the-box1850
Jack1862
alderman1872
cane1930
1607 T. Dekker & G. Wilkins Iests to make you Merie sig. G2 A strong Iron barre made sharpe at one end, and they which trade with that, are called Mils.
1653 in Middlesex Sessions Bk. (London Metropolitan Archives MJ/SBB 125) 10 Oct. 40 Idle and dissolute fellowes..had about them mills or engines to break houses withall.
1703 Hell upon Earth 5 Mill, a Chizel, or to break.
1788 F. Grose Classical Dict. Vulgar Tongue (ed. 2) Mill, a chisel.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online December 2021).

milln.5

Origin: Of uncertain origin.
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps < mill v.1, or perhaps originally a variant of mull n.2A connection with Old English myl dust (see mull n.2) is unlikely, given the late date of attestation of the present word.
Obsolete.
The powdered bark of an oak tree, used in tanning.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > bark > [noun] > for tanning
tan1604
mill1626
quercitron1785
tan-bark1799
alcornoque1821
1626 F. Bacon Sylua Syluarum §625 The Conservation of Fruit would be also tried in Vessels, filled with Fine Sand,..Or in Meal and Flower; Or in Oakwood; or in Mill.
1697 London Gaz. No. 3285/4 All other Makers or Dressers of Leather in Wooze, Mill, Oyl, Salt, Allom.
1711 London Gaz. No. 4862/4 Skins..to be tanned, tawed or dressed in Wooze, Mill, Alom.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2019).

milln.6

Brit. /mɪl/, U.S. /mɪl/
Forms: 1700s– mill, 1800s mille.
Origin: Formed within English, by clipping or shortening. Etymon: Latin millēsimum.
Etymology: Shortened < classical Latin millēsimum thousandth part (see millesm n.), on the analogy of cent n.1 Compare earlier mille n.1, per mil adv. Compare mil n.1
North American.
One-thousandth of a dollar (one-tenth of a cent), a money of account in the United States and Canada, esp. in reckoning rates of taxation.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > standards and values of currencies > [noun] > specific monetary units or units of account > specific U.S.
Rhode Island currency1750
Rhode Island money1750
dollar1785
mill1786
dlr1895
1786 in Amer. Museum (1789) II. 182 Mills, the lowest money of account, of which one thousand shall be equal to the federal dollar, or money unit.
1791 T. Jefferson in Harper's Mag. Mar. 535/1 At 20 cents pr lb it is 8 mills per dish.
1809 E. A. Kendall Trav. Northern Parts U.S. I. xviii. 193 The denominations of money in the United States are dollars, cents or hundredth parts of dollars, and mills or thousandth parts.
1811 P. Kelly Universal Cambist I. 9 A uniform way of keeping Accounts has been established in the United States (by an act of Congress in 1789) namely, in Dollars of 10 Dimes, 100 Cents, or 1000 Mills.
1821 J. Q. Adams Rep. Weights & Meas. 55 Ask a tradesman..in any of our cities what is a dime or a mille, and the chances are four in five that he will not understand your question.
1882 H. E. Scudder Noah Webster ii. 71 A premium for copyright of five mills a copy.
1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 22 Mar. 1/3 City Council last night..bitterly attacked present educational legislation..amendments, particularly the one giving school boards power to levy a tax of one mill to provide for special expenditure.
1974 News & Reporter (Chester, S. Carolina) 24 Apr. a1/8 Board Chairman J. F. (Buddy) Martin told him that in 1970 the county had raised from one mill to two the amount of money that was available for the hospital from the county.
1998 P. Ceruzzi Hist. Mod. Computing ii. 63 Though tax rates are still given in mills.., it is unlikely that anyone will calculate the value of a house, as Henry David Thoreau did, to the half-penny.

Compounds

mill levy n. = mill tax n.
ΚΠ
1925 Amer. Polit. Sci. Rev. 19 310 He opposes special mill levies and any increase in taxes, especially a tax on gasoline.
1993 Santa Fe New Mexican 23 Jan. a4/3 In the past couple of legislative sessions there have been unsuccessful pushes for a property tax mill levy for schools.
mill rate n. a rate of taxation (esp. on property) calculated in mills.
ΚΠ
1895 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 3 458 If taxed at the five-mill rate the revenue would be $2,000,000, a sum equal to 17 cents on $100 realty.]
1921 Daily Colonist (Victoria, Brit. Columbia) 22 Mar. 4/2 The Union should be insistent on opposing the proposed mill rate levy for extraordinary school; board expenditures.
2000 Edmonton Sun (Electronic ed.) 21 Jan. A treasury memo that hit MLAs mail boxes yesterday talks about a ‘modest mill rate reduction’. ‘We are hearing that municipalities' concerns with the expected increase in property-tax requisitions this year need to be addressed,’ Day told MLAs.
mill tax n. a tax of one or more mills on each dollar of assessed valuation.
ΚΠ
1848 in Indiana Hist. Soc. Publ. (1895–1903) 3 514 The former will pay on a mill tax $200.
1903 Scribner's Mag. Oct. 486 They support the Universities by a direct mill tax levied upon the assessed valuation of the State.
2000 Commercial Appeal (Memphis, Tennessee) (Nexis) 21 May ds3 Each county imposed a mill tax for the purpose of founding a public library.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

milln.7

Brit. /mɪl/, U.S. /mɪl/
Forms: 1800s– mil, 1800s– mil. (with point), 1900s– mill, 1900s– mill. (with point).
Origin: Formed within English, by clipping or shortening. Etymon: million n.
Etymology: Shortened < million n. Earliest as graphic abbreviation.
colloquial.
A million; esp. a million pounds (dollars, etc.).
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > sum of money > [noun] > specific sums of money
millionc1400
tun of gold1603
mill1821
monkey1827
lakh1859
thou1867
1821 T. Jefferson Autobiogr. in Writings (1984) 63 The American war had cost them 1440. millns. (256. mils. of Dollars).
1855 Jrnl. Statist. Soc. 18 279 (table) Money actually raised... mils. 584,87..Capitals funded... mils. 879,29.
1907 Jrnl. Polit. Econ. 15 170 (table) Relation of gold and merchandise movements... Mil's of Dol's.
1942 L. V. Berrey & M. Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §18/5 Mill, one million.
1955 R. J. Schwartz Compl. Dict. Abbrev. 112/3 Mill., million.
1975 New Yorker 20 Jan. 29/1 Thanks a mil for your letter.
1984 J. Archer First among Equals (1985) xxiii. 290 We were overdrawn seven mill and then the bank decided to pull the rug from under my feet.
1992 Vanity Fair (N.Y.) Feb. 172/2 The insurance company coughs up five mil.
1994 Toronto Star 31 July d1/1 A $2 million reno on Forest Hill property they scooped up for a knocked-down $3.5 mill.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

milln.8

Brit. /mɪl/, U.S. /mɪl/
Forms: 1800s– mill. (with point), 1900s– mil, 1900s– mil. (with point), 1900s– mill.
Origin: Formed within English, by clipping or shortening. Etymon: millimetre n.
Etymology: Shortened < millimetre n.The form mill is used especially in photography and cinematography; the form mil. is used especially of arms and ammunition.
colloquial.
A millimetre.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement of length > [noun] > units of length or distance > metre > the thousandth part of a metre
millimetre1797
millim1862
mill1877
1877 Jrnl. Anthropol. Inst. 6 21 The thickness of the cylindrical wall of the humerus is 20 millimeters. The extreme width at the condyles is 120 mill.
1946 C. B. Sheppard in Moore School Lect. (1985) 255 This is constructed in the form of a nearly closed C-shaped iron core with a scanning gap of about one mill width.
1960 E. Morgan You're Long Time Dead 386 Sandy, I'll be getting pictures of you in that outfit, don't worry, as good as anyone can take—Best Man, What, on 35 mill?
1974 S. Gulliver Vulcan Bull. 26 ‘What do you want?’ ‘Eighty-one mil. mortar bombs.’
1988 M. Marrin Eye of Beholder v. 29 I've also got a 35 mill. print of the Ophuls film.
1990 G. G. Liddy Monkey Handlers ix. 153 Someone got in here. I heard him—..got the 9 mil., and went down to take him.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

millv.1

Brit. /mɪl/, U.S. /mɪl/
Forms:

α. Scottish pre-1700 myln, pre-1700 1700s miln.

β. 1500s mil, 1500s myll, 1500s– mill; Scottish pre-1700 mell, pre-1700 myll, pre-1700 1700s– mill.

Origin: Formed within English, by conversion. Etymon: mill n.1
Etymology: < mill n.1 Compare earlier milling n.1
I. To grind or process in a mill or as in a mill; to subject to some specific process of manufacture.
1.
a. transitive. To grind (corn) in a mill; to produce (flour) by grinding. Usually in passive.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > grind corn [verb (transitive)]
grindc1384
mill1511
multure1547
meal1669
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation of grain > milling or grinding > grind corn [verb (transitive)] > produce by grinding
grinda1382
mill1511
1511 in J. Robertson Illustr. Topogr. & Antiq. Aberdeen & Banff (1857) III. 106 I ame rycht evill taryit to get men to threis the corne and mar taryit to myll it.
1573 Edinb. Test. II. f. 291v, in Dict. Older Sc. Tongue at Miln Sex bollis of aittis..dryit & mylnit.
1621 in D. G. Barron Court Bk. Urie (1892) 40 [The miller gave his oath that the laird's corn-rents] salbe milnt as effeirs.
?1830 P. Sellar Kyle in Ayrshire 47, in Farm-rep. The grain thrashed is set down on one side,..and, when milled, the meal is entered separately.
1902 Q. Rev. July 327 By Lord Stanley's Act of 1843 a certain advantage was given to flour milled in Canada.
1979 D. Smith Cookery Course II. 360 Rye is most commonly milled into various grades of flour for bread-making.
b. transitive. To grind or crush (a solid substance) to powder or pulp; spec. to crumble or compress (tobacco).
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > use of drugs and poison > tobacco > prepare tobacco [verb (transitive)] > pound or powder
mill1782
1782 W. Cowper To W. Bull 38 This oval box, well filled With best tobacco finely milled.
1887 R. D. Blackmore Springhaven I. xxvi. 294 Shaving with his girdle-knife a cake of rich tobacco, and then milling it complacently betwixt his horny palms.
1895 Scribner's Mag. 18 637 All the new gunpowder milled in Surrey was, for some purpose of his own, stored by Lord Levellier on the alder island of the pond near his workshops.
1955 K. Hutton & A. Swallow Chem. for Gen. Sci. ix. 118 The sintered material is next milled by steel balls into an impalpable powder which can pass a 34,000 mesh sieve.
1998 Zest Sept. (advt.) [The] standardized extract capsules contain 100% pure herb powder that's been finely milled for quick release.
c. transitive. To hull (seeds) in a mill. Also intransitive: to undergo hulling or milling.
ΚΠ
1863 Buckman in Gardeners' Chron. 23 May 493 The best plan..to pursue is to mill the Sainfoin seed, in which case its outer covering is removed.
1863 Buckman in Gardeners' Chron. 23 May 493 The Burnet..will not mill, but simply gets its wings broken off.
1992 A. Thorpe Ulverton iii. 66 To sow clover-seed on its own, pure, milled from the husk, perforce proves too light a cast in the March winds.
2. transitive. To pass (cloth or other material) through a fulling-mill; to thicken (cloth, wool, etc.) by fulling. Also in extended use.
ΘΚΠ
the world > textiles and clothing > textiles > textile manufacture > manufacture textile fabric or that which consists of > manufacture of textile fabric > treating or processing textile fabric > treat or process textile fabric [verb (transitive)] > full
full1383
cloth-walk1467
thick1482
mill1552
1552 Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI c. 6 §1 And beinge well scowred, thicked, mylled, and fully dried, everie yarde of everie suche Clothe shall waye thre pound at the leste.
1633 Proclam. in R. Sanderson Rymer's Fœdera (1732) XIX. 447/2 All such white Worcester Clothes..as shall be milled in Gloucestershire.
1706 A. Boyer Hist. Reign Queen Anne: Year the Fourth 27 All Broad Cloaths..after the same are fully Mill'd and Firnish'd.
1718 J. Steuart Let.-bk. (1915) 101 Pray take care the cloth be of a deep dry and well milned.
1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. Great Brit. iii. 103 The cloth..is then ‘milled’, ‘fulled’, or ‘felted’, that is, beaten until the fibres of the wool become so locked into each other [etc.].
1902 Brit. Med. Jrnl. 15 Feb. 378/1 It [sc. the folded ‘form’] is then ‘milled’ or pounded with heavy oak hammers.
1969 A. J. Hall Standard Handbk. Textiles (ed. 7) iii. 163 Ordinary wool blankets are made by milling..a woven wool fabric.
1992 C. Giles & I. H. Goodall Yorks. Textile Mills iii. 107/1 The woven cloth was milled (fulled) within the main sheds, and finishing processes (tentering, perching, raising and shearing) were..undertaken in the main block (Westfield).
3.
a. transitive. To beat or whip (chocolate, cream, etc.) to a froth. to mill up: to beat together. Also figurative. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > preparation for table or cooking > general preparation processes > perform general preparation processes [verb (transitive)] > whip
swingc1000
swengec1430
slingc1450
beat1486
batter1585
strokea1639
mill1662
whip1673
whisk1710
cream1889
the world > relative properties > wholeness > mutual relation of parts to whole > condition or state of being mixed or blended > mix or blend [verb (transitive)] > by kneading, stirring, etc.
workeOE
welka1400
confrayc1420
to work upc1425
tamper1573
to mill up1747
braid1851
1662 H. Stubbe Indian Nectar ii. 9 They dissolved it [sc. chocolata] (being pouder'd) and milled it, tempering it by little and little with water in an Indian cup.
1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery xvi. 147 Mill the Cream till it is all of a thick Froth.
1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery xvi. 147 Then..over that whip your Froth which you saved off the Cream very well milled up.
1752 E. Moxon Eng. Housewifery (new ed.) 131 Take four ounces of chocolate,..and boil it in a pint of cream, then mill it..with a chocolate stick.
1769 E. Raffald Experienced Eng. House-keeper vii. 184 Mill them with a Chocolate Mill, to raise the Froth, and take it off with a Spoon as it rises.
1817 S. T. Coleridge Satyrane's Lett. i, in Biogr. Lit. (1882) 245 What Pericles would not do to save a friend's life, you may be assured I would not hazard merely to mill the chocolate-pot of a drunken fool's vanity.
1846 W. S. Landor Imaginary Conversat. in Wks. II. 83/2 A chaplain milling an egg-posset over the fire.
1859 C. Dickens Tale of Two Cities ii. vii. 69 A second, milled and frothed the chocolate.
1897 R. Kipling Captains Courageous vii. 142 Graaa—ouch! went the conch, while sea and sky were all milled up in milky fog.
b. transitive. In pottery manufacture: to beat (the ingredients of a glaze) into a paste. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1875 C. D. E. Fortnum Maiolica i. 4 The vitreous substance is reduced to the finest powder by mechanical and other means, being milled with water to the consistency of cream.
4.
a. transitive. To produce (a coin) by means of mill machinery (see mill n.1 2b). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > coining > coin (money) [verb (transitive)] > coin by mill and press
mill1673
1673 Melting Jrnls. Sc. Mint f. 2 To mell from the press.
1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant ii. 89 They [sc. coins] are stamped (as all the rest of their money) with the hammer, and not milled.
b. transitive. To produce a uniform marked edge on (a coin or any piece of flat metal) by machine; to create regular grooves or similar markings on the edge of (a coin) as a protection against illegal clipping.The marking of the edges of coins was not part of the original function of the mill, though this feature appears on English coins from the 1650s.
ΘΚΠ
society > trade and finance > money > coining > coin (money) [verb (transitive)] > specific processes
reduce1581
crenel1697
mill1724
crenate1868
to strike up1883
the world > space > shape > unevenness > condition or fact of receding > condition or action of indentation of edge > indent the edge of [verb (transitive)] > knurl or mill
mill1724
knurl1875
1724 J. Swift Some Observ. Wood's Half-pence 23 I find the Half-pence were Milled, which..is of great Use to prevent Counterfeits.
1855 T. B. Macaulay Hist. Eng. IV. xxii. 805 The new crowns and half-crowns, broad, heavy and sharply milled, were ringing on all the counters.
1875 E. H. Knight Amer. Mech. Dict. II. 1441/1 Castaining's machine for milling coin was introduced into the French mint in 1685.
1889 Science 20 Dec. 414 These bearings are conical, and milled through.
1997 Business Rev. (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia) Jan.–Feb. 3/2 Milling the edges of coins made the practice of removing small amounts of metal from the coins very easy to detect.
5. transitive. To roll (metal); to flatten (metal) under a roller or beater. Also: to roll (paper) into sheets with a smooth and even surface.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > work with metal [verb (transitive)] > roll
laminate1666
mill1677
roll1866
cog1881
roll-form1943
society > occupation and work > industry > working with specific materials > working with metal > work with metal [verb (transitive)] > machine
turn?c1335
mill1677
to rough down1829
broach1846
spin1853
plane1875
straddle mill1898
profile1905
jig-bore1939
spark-erode1960
1677 [implied in: London Gaz. No. 1232/4 The late Invention for Milled Lead. (at milled adj. 4)].
1691 T. Hale Acct. New Inventions 60 When this way of Milling Lead for Sheathing of Ships was first invented.
1846 Littell's Living Age 3 Oct. 28/1 The paper..is so far unfinished on the surface that it requires to be milled, by being put through rollers in the manner which I have already described for smoothing sheets of paper or card.
1944 W. Morgan in R. Greenhalgh Pract. Builder ix. 316/2 Most sheet lead used today is milled, although cast lead is reputed to be more durable.
1984 A. Smith in G. Ursell More Sask. Gold (1984) iii. x. 412 Victor, the man, had a shop with machines that milled and lathed metal and did other extraordinary things.
1991 Jrnl. Mil. Hist. 55 iii. u4/2 Pages are specially milled acid-neutral paper.
6. transitive. To tumble (leather) in a wheel or cylinder containing a softening or tanning liquid. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1728 Stamford Mercury 21 Mar. 95/1 To be Lett..A Very convenient Place for a Fellmonger or Tanner, well Water'd for either business,..and a Mill for Milling leather, if they have Occasion for it.
1885 C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather (1897) xxvii. 415 Then they [sc. the sides] are put into a pin-wheel and milled for ten minutes.
7. transitive. To twist (flax, etc.) into thread. Obsolete.
ΚΠ
1808 J. Jamieson Etymol. Dict. Sc. Lang. at Strick To tie up flax in small handfuls, in preparing it for being milled.
1844 G. Dodd Textile Manuf. Great Brit. v. 151 Directions were also drawn up for..grassing, milling, and hand-scutching the flax.
a1877 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. II. 1439/2 Mill,..to throw undyed silk.
8. transitive. To cut or shape (metal) with a milling machine or a rapidly rotating tool; to make by this means.
ΚΠ
1861 J. H. Burton Let. 20 July in War of Rebellion (U.S. War Dept.) (1900) 4th Ser. I. 509 The set of milling machines for milling barrels.
a1884 E. H. Knight Pract. Dict. Mech. Suppl. 607/1 By means of the swinging sleeve true circles of greater or less diameter can be milled on the face of the work.
1956 E. Molloy Automobile Engineer's Ref. Bk. iii. 210 This is..a plunge-cut horizontal milling head for milling the bearing-retaining slots.
1964 S. Crawford Basic Engin. Processes iv. 106 Find the appropriate rev/min. suitable for milling a mild-steel component when using a 4-inch-diameter plain milling cutter.
1989 P. Godfrey Inventing New Colour in K. Harwood First Run (1989) I. 54 He threw a machine part in the water. He'd made it wrong, I could've milled it back again.
9. Mining.
a. transitive. To crush or grind into fragments or powder, esp. as part of the process of dressing an ore.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > mining > mine [verb (transitive)] > other (coal-)mining procedures
underbeit1670
buck1683
bank1705
bunding1747
urge1758
slappet1811
tamp1819
jowl1825
stack1832
sprag1841
hurry1847
bottom1851
salt1852
pipe1861
mill1868
tram1883
stope1886
sump1910
crow-pick1920
stockpile1921
spec1981
1868 Sci. Amer. 7 Oct. 231 The total quantity of ore milled was 77,954¼ tuns. Average yield per tun, $24 14; cost of milling, $14 75.
1869 J. R. Browne Resources of Pacific Slope 417 In one month 417 tons of ore were milled, producing $36,865. The assay of the ore was over $100 per ton.
1883 Standard 20 Jan. 1/5 The whole of the quartz removed has been milled.
1895 Times 19 Feb. 3/6 For the year 1894 there was milled 2,827,365 tons.
1930 Times 14 Mar. 20/3 The tonnage milled by the Crown Mines, Limited, for 1929—namely, 2,643,000 tons—established a fresh record for the mine.
1971 Daily Tel. 20 Oct. 13/1 Large machines..rip, slice, grind, or mill the coal from the underground coal face.
1990 D. Smyth in C. Mungall & D. J. McLaren Planet under Stress (1991) 247 Radioactive waste accumulation in nations that mine and mill uranium ore has created ‘dumps’ potentially dangerous to human health.
b. transitive. To produce or yield under the process of crushing or grinding. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > mineral material > actions of mineral materials [verb (transitive)] > of minerals: yield (amount)
mill1877
1877 R. W. Raymond Statistics Mines & Mining 247 The quartz..will mill about $20 to the ton.
1897 Westm. Gaz. 19 Oct. 8/3 I would not like to say that it will mill that. It will certainly mill 1 oz.
10. transitive. To cut (soap, etc.) into small shreds, for mixing or blending; to process (inferior butter, curd, etc.) similarly.
ΚΠ
1877 Rep. Vermont Dairymen's Assoc. 8 79 Most grades of cheap butter and much stale old butter is now ‘milled’ in all the large dairy markets.
1902 Chambers's Jrnl. Apr. 204/1 When quite hard, this fine soap is milled, or cut into very small shreds, after which it is pressed in moulds into fancy shapes.
1951 Oxf. Junior Encycl. VII. 156/1 The curd..is ‘milled’ or torn into small particles, mixed with salt, and packed into a hoop or mould.
1967 Everyman's Encycl. XI. 271/2 The chips are transferred to a mixer where the dyes and perfumes are added, which are then milled to make the soap plastic and homogeneous.
1982 P. Rance Great Brit. Cheese Bk. II. vi. 104 Leicester and Double Gloucester curd is milled twice. Herbs, wine, etc., may be introduced after milling.
11. transitive. To saw (timber), esp. in a sawmill.
ΘΚΠ
society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > constructing or working with wood > build or construct with wood [verb (transitive)] > saw > in specific manner or with specific saw
rip1532
whip-saw1842
buck1870
jigsaw1873
ripsaw1881
mill1886
saw-kerf1886
quarter-saw1890
buzz1925
plain saw1951
1886 Art Age 4 46 Lumbermen charge the consumer for the full measurement of the boards [for floors] before they are milled.
1966 Weekly News (Auckland) 1 June 43/2 A tender was accepted which allowed the White Cliffs Sawmilling Company to mill 200,000 cubic feet of native timber a year.
2000 Dunoon Observer & Argyllshire Standard 15 July 4/2 The post that the bell was previously on was rotten, so I bought a locally grown Oak Tree and had it milled to the required specifications.
II. Extended uses.
12. slang.
a. transitive. To beat, strike, thrash; to fight, overcome (cf. mill n.4, mill v.2); (occasionally) to kill. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > impact > striking > beating or repeated striking > beat [verb (transitive)] > specifically a person
to-beatc893
threshOE
bustc1225
to lay on or upon?c1225
berrya1250
to-bunea1250
touchc1330
arrayc1380
byfrapc1380
boxc1390
swinga1400
forbeatc1420
peal?a1425
routa1425
noddlea1450
forslinger1481
wipe1523
trima1529
baste1533
waulk1533
slip1535
peppera1550
bethwack1555
kembc1566
to beat (a person) black and blue1568
beswinge1568
paik1568
trounce1568
canvass1573
swaddle?1577
bebaste1582
besoop1589
bumfeage1589
dry-beat1589
feague1589
lamback1589
clapperclaw1590
thrash1593
belam1595
lam1595
beswaddle1598
bumfeagle1598
belabour1600
tew1600
flesh-baste1611
dust1612
feeze1612
mill1612
verberate1614
bethumpa1616
rebuke1619
bemaul1620
tabor1624
maula1627
batterfang1630
dry-baste1630
lambaste1637
thunder-thump1637
cullis1639
dry-banga1640
nuddle1640
sauce1651
feak1652
cotton1654
fustigate1656
brush1665
squab1668
raddle1677
to tan (a person's) hide1679
slam1691
bebump1694
to give (a person) his load1694
fag1699
towel1705
to kick a person's butt1741
fum1790
devel1807
bray1808
to beat (also scare, etc.) someone's daylights out1813
mug1818
to knock (a person) into the middle of next week1821
welt1823
hidea1825
slate1825
targe1825
wallop1825
pounce1827
to lay into1838
flake1841
muzzle1843
paste1846
looder1850
frail1851
snake1859
fettle1863
to do over1866
jacket1875
to knock seven kinds of —— out of (a person)1877
to take apart1880
splatter1881
to beat (knock, etc.) the tar out of1884
to —— the shit out of (a person or thing)1886
to do up1887
to —— (the) hell out of1887
to beat — bells out of a person1890
soak1892
to punch out1893
stoush1893
to work over1903
to beat up1907
to punch up1907
cream1929
shellac1930
to —— the bejesus out of (a person or thing)1931
duff1943
clobber1944
to fill in1948
to bash up1954
to —— seven shades of —— out of (a person or thing)1976
to —— seven shades out of (a person or thing)1983
beast1990
becurry-
fan-
the world > action or operation > prosperity > success > mastery or superiority > have or gain mastery or superiority over [verb (transitive)] > overcome or defeat
shendc893
overwinOE
overheaveOE
mate?c1225
to say checkmatea1346
vanquishc1366
stightlea1375
outrayc1390
to put undera1393
forbeat1393
to shave (a person's) beardc1412
to put to (also at, unto) the (also one's) worsec1425
adawc1440
supprisec1440
to knock downc1450
to put to the worsta1475
waurc1475
convanquish1483
to put out1485
trima1529
convince1548
foil1548
whip1571
evict1596
superate1598
reduce1605
convict1607
defail1608
cast1610
banga1616
evince1620
worst1646
conquer1655
cuffa1657
trounce1657
to ride down1670
outdo1677
routa1704
lurcha1716
fling1790
bowl1793
lick1800
beat1801
mill1810
to row (someone) up Salt River1828
defeat1830
sack1830
skunk1832
whop1836
pip1838
throw1850
to clean out1858
take1864
wallop1865
to sock it to1877
whack1877
to clean up1888
to beat out1893
to see off1919
to lower the boom on1920
tonk1926
clobber1944
ace1950
to run into the ground1955
1612 T. Dekker O per se O sig. L2v If they doe [reveal cant words], the others Mawnderers or Roagues, Mill them (kill them).
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Mill them, kill them.
1728 Street-robberies, Consider'd 33 Mill, to beat.
1753 Discov. J. Poulter (ed. 2) 39 Mill the Cull to his long Libb; kill the Man dead.
1753 Discov. J. Poulter (ed. 2) 40 Mill his Nobb; break his Head.
1810 Sporting Mag. 36 231 The Black..threatens to mill the whole race of fighters of the day.
1864 Eton School Days vii. 75 Butler Burke was going to mill Chorley.
b. intransitive. To fight, box; (occasionally) with away.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > sport > types of sport or game > fighting sports > boxing > box [verb (intransitive)]
box1581
to box it out (also to box it off)1689
spar1755
mill1829
scrap1874
to box on1898
1829 P. Egan Boxiana New Ser. II. 38 He regarded its effects as nothing, and returned gaily to mill.
1840 W. M. Thackeray Barber Cox in Comic Almanack 37 Tug..milled away—one, two, right and left—like a little hero as he is.
1864 Eton School Days vii. 77 Are you going to mill, or are you not?
1987 Land Daily News 17 Mar. 42/2 He was an ageing journeyman boxer who had spent years milling in small halls, and then got a chance to make it big.
13. slang.
a. transitive. to mill doll (also to mill dolly): to beat hemp or flax as a prison occupation; (hence) to be in prison. Cf. dolly n.1 4b and mill-doll n. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > be imprisoned [verb (intransitive)] > beat hemp or flax
to mill doll1714
mill1733
1714 A. Smith Hist. Lives Highway-men (ed. 2) I. 141 Having been often punisht at hard Labour in Bridewell, which beating of Hemp the Thieves call Mill dolly.
1780 R. Tomlinson Slang Pastoral vi. 7 When sitting with Nancy, what sights have I seen!.. But now she mills doll.
1821 P. Egan Life in London i. ii. 34 A saucy, tip-slang, moon-eyed hen, Who oft mills Doll at block.
1848 Sinks of London laid Open 115 Milldoll, to beat hemp in Bridewell.
b. intransitive. To mill doll. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > be imprisoned [verb (intransitive)] > beat hemp or flax
to mill doll1714
mill1733
1733 E. Budgell Bee iv. 477 Then mill on dear Polly,..The Hemp thou art beating may hang him to Morrow.
14. transitive. slang. To send to the treadmill; to send to prison (cf. mill n.1 7). Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > punishment > imprisonment > imprison [verb (transitive)] > send or take to
send971
rub1673
mill1838
boob1895
porridge1965
1838 C. Dickens Oliver Twist II. xxv. 83 I shouldn't have been milled if it hadn't been for her advice. But..what's six weeks of it?
III. To move in a wheeling course.
15. intransitive. Of a whale: to turn around, reverse direction.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > order Cetacea (whales) > [verb (intransitive)] > miscellaneous actions of whale
calvec1000
spout1683
blow1726
peak1839
sound1839
fluke1840
mill1840
breach1843
white-water1856
round1881
1840 F. D. Bennett Narr. Whaling Voy. II. 221 A whale ‘milled’, or turned suddenly round, upon receiving the harpoons.
1851 H. Melville Moby-Dick c. 487 One day we lowered for a pod of four or five whales, and my boat fastened to one of them; a regular circus horse he was, too, that went milling and milling round so.
1874 C. M. Scammon Marine Mammals N. Amer. Gloss. 311 Mill, to turn in an opposite direction, or nearly so; as, ‘The whale was running to windward, but “milled”, and ran to leeward’.
1937 Discovery Oct. 310/1 When ‘milling’ it [sc. the cachalot] stands upright, with its head out and little pig eyes above the surface.
16.
a. intransitive. Originally U.S. Of cattle: to move continuously round in a circling mass. Also with around.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > mammals > group Ungulata (hoofed) > group Ruminantia (sheep, goats, cows, etc.) > bos taurus or ox > [verb (intransitive)] > mill around
ring1868
mill1888
1888 T. Roosevelt in Cent. Mag. Apr. 862/1 The cattle may begin to run, and then get ‘milling’—that is, all crowd together into a mass like a ball, wherein they move round and round.
1904 ‘O. Henry’ Hearts & Crosses in Everybody's Mag. Dec. 828/1 The aroused cattle milled around the four sides of the corral in a plunging mass.
1972 T. A. Bulman Kamloops Cattlemen i. 12 The next big worry was how to keep the leaders from starting to circle back and beginning to ‘mill’ in a wild circle.
b. intransitive. Originally: to move continuously round in a circling mass; to move in a circle. Now usually: to move around in or among a crowd or in an aimless or confused manner. Frequently with about, around.
ΘΚΠ
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > change of direction of movement > change direction of movement [verb (intransitive)] > move without fixed course > in a mass
pell-mella1864
mill1895
the world > movement > motion in a certain direction > movement in circle or curve > move in a circle or curve [verb (intransitive)] > move in a circle > in a mass
mill1895
1895 R. Kipling Second Jungle Bk. 79 The deer and the pig and the nilghai were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles' radius.
1910 W. M. Raine Bucky O'Connor 227 I expect you were able to make out, even if I did get the letters to milling around wrong.
1911 H. Quick Yellowstone Nights v. 127 The main thing the matter was that failure o' his a-millin' through his mental facilities.
1919 L. F. Cody Mem. Buffalo Bill 302 Indians and soldiers milled, the Indians fighting with their knives, the soldiers with their guns.
1927 H. E. Fosdick Pilgrimage to Palestine 262 We look down upon the throng milling around the Chapel of the Sepulcher.
1935 Punch 29 May 648/2 The sergeants are milling round like madmen with last-minute instructions.
1957 J. Kerouac On the Road i. v. 33 First we milled with all the cowboy-dudded tourists..at bars.
1968 R. M. Patterson Finlay's River iii. 164 To follow their wanderings in detail would be pointless. They milled around like that for the next two days, obsessed with this ridge-climbing idea.
1984 D. DeLillo White Noise (1985) i. ii. 6 We milled about, bickered a little.
c. transitive. Originally U.S. To cause to mill or mass in a circle.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > animal husbandry > animal keeping practices general > herding, pasturing, or confining > [verb (transitive)] > herd > herd or drive together
drive1540
bunch1828
close-herd1874
band1878
mill1901
1901 Munsey's Mag. 25 406/2 At last the cattle..ran with less energy, and it was presently easy to ‘mill’ them into a circle and to turn them where it seemed most desirable.
1935 H. L. Davis Honey in Horn iii. 29 Clay had to grab ropes and mill the pack-horses to keep them from stampeding.
1989 J. Hook Chief Joseph 36 Out of sight, the Nez Perces milled their ponies to confuse their trail, then doubled north once more.
17. transitive. To turn (an idea, problem, etc.) over in one's mind. Cf. to mull over at mull v.4 1c.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > thought > continued thinking, reflection, contemplation > thinking about, consideration, deliberation > consider, deliberate [verb (transitive)]
i-thenchec897
showeOE
i-mune971
thinkOE
overthinkOE
takec1175
umbethinkc1175
waltc1200
bethinkc1220
wend?c1225
weighc1380
delivera1382
peisea1382
considerc1385
musec1390
to look over ——a1393
advise?c1400
debatec1400
roll?c1400
revert?a1425
advertc1425
deliberc1425
movec1425
musec1425
revolvec1425
contemplec1429
overseec1440
to think overc1440
perpend1447
roil1447
pondera1450
to eat inc1450
involvec1470
ponderate?a1475
reputec1475
counterpoise1477
poisea1483
traversec1487
umbecast1487
digest1488
undercast1489
overhalec1500
rumble1519
volve?1520
compassa1522
recount1526
trutinate1528
cast1530
expend1531
ruminate1533
concoct1534
contemplate1538
deliberate1540
revolute1553
chawa1558
to turn over1568
cud1569
cogitate1570
huik1570
chew1579
meditatec1580
discourse1581
speculate1599
theorize1599
scance1603
verse1614
pensitate1623
agitate1629
spell1633
view1637
study1659
designa1676
introspect1683
troll1685
balance1692
to figure on or upon1837
reflect1862
mull1873
to mull over1874
scour1882
mill1905
1905 Smart Set Oct. 17/1 No,..I ain't buyin' no dishes. I was just kind o' millin' things over to myself.
1923 R. D. Paine Comrades Rolling Ocean xvii. 298 Judson, on guard in the cabin, was milling this problem over.
1958 ‘A. Gilbert’ Death against Clock viii. 111 Barney's milled it over and over..and we can't think of any reason.
1964 M. Gowing Brit. & Atomic Energy 1939–45 ix. 250 Nor did they [sc. the American engineers] want to spend much time in milling over alternative approaches to problems for which they had chosen..their own solution.
1998 B. Kingsolver Poisonwood Bible (1999) v. 482 She seemed to mill it over, and then stated it all as a matter of fact.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).

millv.2

Forms: 1500s myll, 1600s mil, 1600s–1800s mill.
Origin: Of uncertain origin. Perhaps a variant or alteration of another lexical item. Etymon: mill v.1
Etymology: Origin uncertain; perhaps a use of mill v.1 (compare mill v.1 12a); the slang uses of the two verbs seem to converge semantically in their later occurrences (compare sense 2 and, for example, quot. 17532 at mill v.1 12a) although it is difficult to see how the original meaning ‘rob’ of the present verb could have arisen from the literal senses of mill v.1 N.E.D. (1906) gives the pronunciation as (mil) /mɪl/.
Obsolete cant.
1. transitive. To rob (a building); (also) to steal. Also intransitive.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > steal [verb (transitive)]
pick?c1300
takec1300
fetch1377
bribec1405
usurpc1412
rapc1415
to rap and rendc1415
embezzle1495
lifta1529
pilfer1532
suffurate1542
convey?1545
mill1567
prig1567
strike1567
lag1573
shave1585
knave1601
twitch1607
cly1610
asport1621
pinch1632
snapa1639
nap1665
panyar1681
to carry off1684
to pick up1687
thievea1695
to gipsy away1696
bone1699
make1699
win1699
magg1762
snatch1766
to make off with1768
snavel1795
feck1809
shake1811
nail1819
geach1821
pull1821
to run off1821
smug1825
nick1826
abduct1831
swag1846
nobble1855
reef1859
snig1862
find1865
to pull off1865
cop1879
jump1879
slock1888
swipe1889
snag1895
rip1904
snitch1904
pole1906
glom1907
boost1912
hot-stuff1914
score1914
clifty1918
to knock off1919
snoop1924
heist1930
hoist1931
rabbit1943
to rip off1967
to have off1974
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > burglary > burgle [verb (intransitive)]
mill1567
housebreaka1822
to crack a crib1838
burglarize1947
1567 T. Harman Caueat for Commen Cursetors (new ed.) Peddelars Frenche sig. Giiiv To myll a Ken, to robbe a house.
1608 T. Dekker Lanthorne & Candle-light sig. C2v If we Niggle, or mil a bowsing Ken.
a1637 B. Jonson Masque of Gypsies 69* in tr. Horace Art of Poetry (1640) They can Cant, and Mill, are they Masters in their Arts?
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Mill. to Steal, Rob.
1752 N.Y. Gaz. Revived 27 Nov. 2 Roach told Kennedy he had mill'd a Pocket-Book.
1811 Sporting Mag. 37 13 He had milled my wipe.
1818 W. Scott Heart of Mid-Lothian v, in Tales of my Landlord 2nd Ser. III. 118 One might have milled the Bank of England, and less noise about it.
1821 Sonnets for Fancy in P. Egan Boxiana III. App. 622 To nail the ticker..or to mill the cly [note handkerchief].
2. transitive. To break open, usually in order to commit robbery.
ΘΚΠ
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > breaking or cracking > break [verb (transitive)] > windows
mill1699
nick1717
pin1824
the world > existence and causation > creation > destruction > breaking or cracking > break [verb (transitive)] > crack (but not break)
crazec1386
crack1609
flaw1665
star1787
mill1825
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Milling the Gig with a Betty, breaking open the door with an Iron-Crow.
1699 B. E. New Dict. Canting Crew Milling the glaze, breaking open the window.
1753 Discov. J. Poulter (ed. 2) 10 When we went a Milling that Swagg, that is, a Breaking open that Shop.
1753 Discov. J. Poulter (ed. 2) 39 Mill the Quod; break the Gaol.
1825 C. M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I. 282 Milling the glaze.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2002; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
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n.1eOEn.21388n.3c1450n.41607n.51626n.61786n.71821n.81877v.11511v.21567
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