mill

Noun

mill (plural mills)

1. A grinding apparatus for substances such as grains, seeds, etc.

   Pepper has a stronger flavor when it is ground straight from a mill.

2. The building housing such a grinding apparatus.

   My grandfather worked in a mill.

3. A machine used for expelling the juice, sap, etc., from vegetable tissues by pressure, or by pressure in combination with a grinding, or cutting process.

   a cider mill; a cane mill

4. A machine for grinding and polishing.

   a lapidary mill

5. The raised or ridged edge or surface made in milling anything, such as a coin or screw.
6. A manufacturing plant for paper, steel, textiles, etc.

   a steel mill

7. A building housing such a plant.
8. (figuratively) An establishment that handles a certain type of situation routinely, such as a divorce mill, etc.
9. (figuratively) An institution awarding educational certificates not officially recognised
10. (informal) An engine.
11. (informal) A boxing match, fistfight.
    • 1914, Edgar Rice Burrows, The Mucker‎, HTML edition, The Gutenberg Project, published 2009:

      The name of the "white hope" against whom Billy was to go was sufficient to draw a fair house, and there were some there who had seen Billy in other fights and looked for a good mill.

12. (die sinking) A hardened steel roller with a design in relief, used for imprinting a reversed copy of the design in a softer metal, such as copper.
13. (mining) An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained.
14. (mining) A passage underground through which ore is shot.
15. A milling cutter.
16. A treadmill.

Verb

mill (third-person singular simple present mills, present participle milling, simple past and past participle milled)

1. (transitive) To grind or otherwise process in a mill or other machine.

   to mill flour

2. (transitive) To shape, polish, dress or finish using a machine.
3. (transitive) To engrave one or more grooves or a pattern around the edge of (a cylindrical object such as a coin).
4. (intransitive, followed by around, about, etc.) To move about in an aimless fashion.

   I didn't have much to do, so I just milled around the town looking at the shops.

   • Rudyard Kipling

     The deer and the pig and the nilghai were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles radius, while the Eaters of Flesh skirmished round its edge.

5. (transitive) To cause to mill, or circle around.

   to mill cattle

6. (zoology, of air-breathing creatures) To swim underwater.
7. (zoology, of a whale) To swim suddenly in a new direction.
8. (transitive, slang) To beat; to pound.
   • Rudyard Kipling

     Ortheris said nothing for a while. Then he unslung his belt, heavy with the badges of half a dozen regiments that his own had lain with, and handed it over to Mulvaney.
     "I'm too little for to mill you, Mulvaney," said he, "an' you've strook me before; but you can take an' cut me in two with this 'ere if you like."

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Thackeray to this entry?)

9. To pass through a fulling mill; to full, as cloth.
10. (transitive) To roll (steel, etc.) into bars.
11. (transitive) To make (drinking chocolate) frothy, as by churning.
12. (intransitive) To undergo hulling.

    This maize mills well.

13. (intransitive, slang) To take part in a fistfight; to box.
14. (transitive, mining) To fill (a winze or interior incline) with broken ore, to be drawn out at the bottom.
15. (trading card games) To place cards into the discard pile directly from the draw pile.
16. (obsolete, Britain, thieves' cant) To commit burglary.
    • 1611, Middleton, Thomas, “The Roaring Girl”, in Bullen, Arthur Henry, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton‎, volume 4, published 1885, Act 5, Scene 1, pages 128–129:

      Ben mort, shall you and I heave a bough, mill a ken, or nip a bung, and then we'll couch a hogshead under the ruffmans, and there you shall wap with me, and I'll niggle with you.

    • 1818, Scott, Sir Walter, chapter 6, in The Heart of Midlothian:

      And why not?—You would think little of peaching and hanging him for this Scotch affair.—Rat me, one might have milled the Bank of England, and less noise about it.

Noun

Missouri mill token.

mill (plural mills)

1. An obsolete coin worth one thousandth of a US dollar, or one tenth of a cent.
2. One thousandth part, particularly in millage rates of property tax.

Noun

mill (plural mills)

1. A line of three matching pieces in nine men's morris and related games.

Related terms

• meshin

Verb

mill (present analytic milleann, future analytic millfidh, verbal noun milleadh, past participle millte)

1. (transitive, intransitive) spoil; mar, ruin
   1. ravish

Noun

mill f (genitive singular mille, nominative plural milleanna)

1. Alternative form of meill (“flabby, loose, skin; blubber lip; unshapely mouth”)
2. (botany) pendant bud or flower

Verb

mill (past mhill, future millidh, verbal noun milleadh, past participle millte)

1. destroy, spoil, ruin

Noun

mill m

1. genitive singular of meall
2. plural of meall