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