Mill

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

Mill, n. [L. mille a thousand. Cf. Mile.].

 A money of account of the United States, having the value of the tenth of a cent, or the thousandth of a dollar.  [1913 Webster]

Mill, n. [OE. mille, melle, mulle, milne, AS. myln, mylen; akin to D. molen, G. mÜhle, OHG. mulī, mulīn, Icel. mylna; all prob. from L. molina, fr. mola millstone; prop., that which grinds, akin to molere to grind, Goth. malan, G. mahlen, and to E. meal. Meal flour, and cf. Moline.].

•  A machine for grinding or comminuting any substance, as grain, by rubbing and crushing it between two hard, rough, or indented surfaces; as, a gristmill, a coffee mill; a bone mill.  [1913 Webster]
•  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; as, a cider mill; a cane mill.  [1913 Webster]
•  A machine for grinding and polishing; as, a lapidary mill.  [1913 Webster]
•  A common name for various machines which produce a manufactured product, or change the form of a raw material by the continuous repetition of some simple action; as, a sawmill; a stamping mill, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  A building or collection of buildings with machinery by which the processes of manufacturing are carried on; as, a cotton mill; a powder mill; a rolling mill.  [1913 Webster]
•  A hardened steel roller having a design in relief, used for imprinting a reversed copy of the design in a softer metal, as copper.  [1913 Webster]
•  An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained.  [1913 Webster]
•  A milling cutter. See Illust. under Milling.  [1913 Webster]
•  A pugilistic encounter.  R. D. Blackmore.  [1913 Webster]
•  Short for Treadmill.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  The raised or ridged edge or surface made in milling anything, as a coin or screw.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  A building or complex of buildings containing a mill{1} or other machinery to grind grains into flour.  [PJC]

Edge mill, Flint mill, etc. See under Edge, Flint, etc. -- Mill bar (Iron Works), a rough bar rolled or drawn directly from a bloom or puddle bar for conversion into merchant iron in the mill. -- Mill cinder, slag from a puddling furnace. -- Mill head, the head of water employed to turn the wheel of a mill. -- Mill pick, a pick for dressing millstones. -- Mill pond, a pond that supplies the water for a mill. -- Mill race, the canal in which water is conveyed to a mill wheel, or the current of water which drives the wheel. -- Mill tail, the water which flows from a mill wheel after turning it, or the channel in which the water flows. -- Mill tooth, a grinder or molar tooth. -- Mill wheel, the water wheel that drives the machinery of a mill. -- Gin mill, a tavern; a bar; a saloon; especially, a cheap or seedy establishment that serves liquor by the drink. -- Roller mill, a mill in which flour or meal is made by crushing grain between rollers. -- Stamp mill (Mining), a mill in which ore is crushed by stamps. -- To go through the mill, to experience the suffering or discipline necessary to bring one to a certain degree of knowledge or skill, or to a certain mental state.

Mill, v. t. [See Mill, n., and cf. Muller.].

•  To reduce to fine particles, or to small pieces, in a mill; to grind; to comminute.  [1913 Webster]
•  To shape, finish, or transform by passing through a machine; specifically, to shape or dress, as metal, by means of a rotary cutter.  [1913 Webster]
•  To make a raised border around the edges of, or to cut fine grooves or indentations across the edges of, as of a coin, or a screw head; also, to stamp in a coining press; to coin.  [1913 Webster]
•  To pass through a fulling mill; to full, as cloth.  [1913 Webster]
•  To beat with the fists.  Thackeray.  [1913 Webster]
•  To roll into bars, as steel.  [1913 Webster]

To mill chocolate, to make it frothy, as by churning.

Mill, v. i. 

•  To swim under water; -- said of air-breathing creatures.  [1913 Webster]
•  To undergo hulling, as maize.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  To move in a circle, as cattle upon a plain; to move around aimlessly; -- usually used with around.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

  "The deer and the pig and the nilghar were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles radius."  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  To swim suddenly in a new direction; -- said of whales.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  To take part in a mill; to box.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

Mill, v. t. 

•  To fill (a winze or interior incline) with broken ore, to be drawn out at the bottom.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
•  To cause to mill, or circle round, as cattle.  [Webster 1913 Suppl.]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Mill, n. & v.
--n.
1 a a building fitted with a mechanical apparatus for grinding corn. b such an apparatus.
2 an apparatus for grinding any solid substance to powder or pulp (pepper-mill).
3 a a building fitted with machinery for manufacturing processes etc. (cotton-mill). b such machinery.
4 a a boxing-match. b a fist fight.
--v.
1 tr. grind (corn), produce (flour), or hull (seeds) in a mill.
2 tr. produce regular ribbed markings on the edge of (a coin).
3 tr. cut or shape (metal) with a rotating tool.
4 intr. (often foll. by about, around) (of people or animals) move in an aimless manner, esp. in a confused mass.
5 tr. thicken (cloth etc.) by fulling.
6 tr. beat (chocolate etc.) to froth.
7 tr. sl. beat, strike, fight.

Idiom

go (or put) through the mill undergo (or cause to undergo) intensive work or training etc. mill-dam a dam put across a stream to make it usable by a mill. mill-hand a worker in a mill or factory. mill-race a current of water that drives a mill-wheel. mill-wheel a wheel used to drive a water-mill.

Derivative

millable adj.

Mill, n. US one-thousandth of a dollar as money of account.

Etymology

L millesimum thousandth: cf. CENT

THESAURUS

Mill

C, C-note, G, G-note, Vandyke, abrade, amble, armory, arrastra, arsenal, assemble, assembly line, assembly plant, atomic energy plant, atomize, average, ball mill, basic, be turbulent, beat, bindery, blaze, blooming mill, boatyard, boilery, bone mill, bookbindery, bray, brecciate, brewery, brickyard, buck, bunch, bunch up, cane mill, cannery, cartwheel, carve, cent, century, cheese grater, chisel, chop, cider mill, clot, cluster, collect, come together, comminute, comminutor, common, congregate, contriturate, converge, convert, copper, copulate, couple, creamery, crenellate, crenulate, crimp, crowd, crumb, crumble, crunch, crush, crusher, cultivate, cut, dairy, date, defense plant, dime, disintegrate, distillery, dockyard, dollar, dollar bill, drag-stone mill, everyday, experienced, extract, factory, factory belt, factory district, feeder plant, fifty cents, fin, fish, five cents, five hundred dollars, five-dollar bill, five-hundred-dollar bill, five-spot, fiver, flock together, flour, flour mill, flow together, forgather, foundry, four bits, fragment, frogskin, fuse, gang around, gang up, garden-variety, gash, gather, gather around, grain, grand, granulate, granulator, granulize, grate, grater, grind, grind to powder, grinder, grinding mill, gristmill, grow, half G, half a C, half dollar, half grand, hardened, harvest, herd together, hive, horde, huddle, hundred-dollar bill, in the know, incise, indent, industrial park, industrial zone, instrument, iron man, jag, knowledgeable, knurl, kominuter, lapidary mill, league, levigate, levigator, link, machicolate, machine, main plant, manufactory, manufacturing plant, manufacturing quarter, mash, masher, mass, masticate, meander, mechanize, meet, merge, mill around, milling machine, millstone, mince, mine, mint, moil, mortar and pestle, motorize, munitions plant, muster, nick, nickel, notch, nutmeg grater, oil refinery, ordinary, packing house, paper mill, penny, pepper mill, pestle, picot, pink, plant, pottery, pound, powder, power plant, process, production line, pulverize, pulverizer, pump, push-button plant, quarter, quern, quernstone, raise, rally, rally around, rear, red cent, reduce to powder, refine, refinery, rendezvous, retool, rock crusher, roil, roller, rolling mill, run-of-the-mill, sawbuck, sawmill, scallop, scarify, score, scotch, scrunch, seasoned, seethe, serrate, shard, sharpen, sheet mill, shipyard, shop, shred, shredder, silk mill, silver dollar, simple, skin, slab mill, slash, smacker, smash, smelt, smoothing mill, sophisticated, spice mill, squash, stamp mill, stamps, steamroller, steel mill, stir, stream, stroll, subassembly plant, sugar mill, sugar refinery, surge, swarm, tannery, ten cents, ten-spot, tenner, thousand dollars, thousand-dollar bill, throng, tool, tooth, toughened, treadmill, triturate, triturator, twenty-dollar bill, twenty-five cents, two bits, two-dollar bill, two-spot, unexceptional, unite, unremarkable, walk, wander, water mill, windmill, winery, woolen mill, works, workshop, yard, yards

ROGET THESAURUS

Mill

Instrument

N instrument, machinery, mechanism, engineering, instrument, organ, tool, implement, utensil, machine, engine, lathe, gin, mill, air engine, caloric engine, heat engine, gear, tackle, tackling, rig, rigging, apparatus, appliances, plant, materiel, harness, trappings, fittings, accouterments, barde, equipment, equipmentage, appointments, furniture, upholstery, chattels, paraphernalia, mechanical powers, lever, leverage, mechanical advantage, crow, crowbar, handspike, gavelock, jemmy, jimmy, arm, limb, wing, oar, paddle, pulley, wheel and axle, wheelwork, clockwork, wheels within wheels, pinion, crank, winch, cam, pedal, capstan, wheel, inclined plane, wedge, screw, spring, mainspring, can hook, glut, heald, heddle, jenny, parbuckle, sprag, water wheel, handle, hilt, haft, shaft, heft, shank, blade, trigger, tiller, helm, treadle, key, turnscrew, screwdriver, knocker, hammer, edge tool, borer, vice, teeth, nail, rope, peg, support, spoon, arms, oar, cardiograph, recapper, snowplow, tenpenny, votograph, instrumental, mechanical, machinal, brachial.

Unimportance

N unimportance, insignificance, nothingness, immateriality, triviality, levity, frivolity, paltriness, poverty, smallness, vanity, matter of indifference, no object, nothing, nothing to signify, nothing worth speaking of, nothing particular, nothing to boast of, nothing to speak of, small matter, no great matter, trifling matter, mere joke, mere nothing, hardly anything, scarcely anything, nonentity, small beer, cipher, no great shakes, peu de chose, child's play, kinderspiel, toy, plaything, popgun, paper pellet, gimcrack, gewgaw, bauble, trinket, bagatelle, Rickshaw, knickknack, whim-wham, trifle, trifles light as air, yankee notions, trumpery, trash, rubbish, stuff, fatras, frippery, leather or prunello, chaff, drug, froth bubble smoke, cobweb, weed, refuse, scum, joke, jest, snap of the fingers, fudge, fiddlestick, fiddlestick end, pack of nonsense, mere farce, straw, pin, fig, button, rush, bulrush, feather, halfpenny, farthing, brass farthing, doit, peppercorn, jot, rap, pinch of snuff, old son, cent, mill, picayune, pistareen, red cent, minutiae, details, minor details, small fry, dust in the balance, feather in the scale, drop in the ocean, flea-bite, molehill, nine days' wonder, ridiculus mus, flash in the pan, much ado about nothing, unimportant, of little account, of small account, of no account, of little importance, of no importance, immaterial, unessential, nonessential, indifferent, subordinate, mediocre, passable, fair, respectable, tolerable, commonplace, uneventful, mere, common, ordinary, inconsiderable, so-so, insignificant, inappreciable, trifling, trivial, slight, slender, light, flimsy, frothy, idle, puerile, airy, shallow, weak, powerless, frivolous, petty, niggling, piddling, peddling, fribble, inane, ridiculous, farcical, finical, finikin, fiddle-faddle, fingle-fangle, namby-pamby, wishy-washy, milk and water, poor, paltry, pitiful, contemptible, sorry, mean, meager, shabby, miserable, wretched, vile, scrubby, scrannel, weedy, niggardly, scurvy, putid, beggarly, worthless, twopennyhalfpenny, cheap, trashy, catchpenny, gimcrack, trumpery, one- horse, not worth the pains, not worth while, not worth mentioning, not worth speaking of, not worth a thought, not worth a curse, not worth a straw, beneath notice, unworthy of notice, beneath regard, unworthy of regard, beneath consideration, unworthy of consideration, de lana caprina, vain, slightly, rather, somewhat, pretty well, tolerably, for aught one cares, Int, no matter!, pish!, tush!, tut!, pshaw!, pugh!, pooh, pooh-pooh!, fudge!, bosh!, humbug!, fiddlestick, fiddlestick end!, fiddlededee!, never mind!, n'importe!, what signifies it, what boots it, what of it, what of that, what matter, what's the odds, a fig for', stuff!, nonsense!, stuff and nonsense, magno conatu magnas nugas, le jeu ne vaut pas la chandelle, it matters not, it does not signify, it is of no consequence, it is of no importance, elephantus non capit murem, tempete dans un verre d'eau.

Workshop

N workshop, workhouse, workplace, shop, place of business, manufactory, mill, plant, works, factory, cabinet, studio, office, branch office bureau, atelier, hive, hive of industry, nursery, hothouse, hotbed, kitchen, mint, forge, loom, dock, dockyard, alveary, armory, laboratory, lab, research institute, refinery, cannery, power plant, beauty parlor, beehive, bindery, forcing pit, nailery, usine, slip, yard, wharf, foundry, foundery, furnace, vineyard, crucible, alembic, caldron, matrix, at work, at the office, at the shop, working.

Contention

N contention, strife, contest, contestation, struggle, belligerency, opposition, controversy, polemics, debate, war of words, logomachy, litigation, paper war, high words, sparring, competition, rivalry, corrivalry, corrivalship, agonism, concours, match, race, horse racing, heat, steeple chase, handicap, regatta, field day, sham fight, Derby day, turf, sporting, bullfight, tauromachy, gymkhana, boat race, torpids, wrestling, greco-roman wrestling, pugilism, boxing, fisticuffs, the manly art of self-defense, spar, mill, set-to, round, bout, event, prize fighting, quarterstaff, single stick, gladiatorship, gymnastics, jiujitsu, jujutsu, kooshti, sumo, athletics, athletic sports, games of skill, shindy, fracas, clash of arms, tussle, scuffle, broil, fray, affray, affrayment, velitation, colluctation, luctation, brabble, brigue, scramble, melee, scrimmage, stramash, bushfighting, free fight, stand up fight, hand to hand, running fight, conflict, skirmish, rencounter, encounter, rencontre, collision, affair, brush, fight, battle, battle royal, combat, action, engagement, joust, tournament, tilt, tilting, tournay, list, pitched battle, death struggle, struggle for life or death, life or death struggle, Armageddon, hard knocks, sharp contest, tug of war, naval engagement, naumachia, sea fight, duel, duello, single combat, monomachy, satisfaction, passage d'armes, passage of arms, affair of honor, triangular duel, hostile meeting, digladiation, deeds of arms, feats of arms, appeal to arms, pugnacity, combativeness, bone of contention, contending, together by the ears, at loggerheads, at war, at issue, competitive, rival, belligerent, contentious, combative, bellicose, unpeaceful, warlike, quarrelsome, pugnacious, pugilistic, gladiatorial, palestric, palestrical, a verbis ad verbera, a word and a blow, a very pretty quarrel as it stands, commune periculum concordiam parit, lis litem generat.

Pulverulence

N powderiness, pulverulence, sandiness, efflorescence, friability, powder, dust, sand, shingle, sawdust, grit, meal, bran, flour, farina, rice, paddy, spore, sporule, crumb, seed, grain, particle, limature, filings, debris, detritus, tailings, talus slope, scobs, magistery, fine powder, flocculi, smoke, cloud of dust, cloud of sand, cloud of smoke, puff of smoke, volume of smoke, sand storm, dust storm, pulverization, comminution, attenuation, granulation, disintegration, subaction, contusion, trituration, levigation, abrasion, detrition, multure, limitation, tripsis, filing, mill, arrastra, gristmill, grater, rasp, file, mortar and pestle, nutmeg grater, teeth, grinder, grindstone, kern, quern, koniology, powdery, pulverulent, granular, mealy, floury, farinaceous, branny, furfuraceous, flocculent, dusty, sandy, sabulous, psammous, arenose, arenarious, arenaceous, gritty, efflorescent, impalpable, lentiginous, lepidote, sabuline, sporaceous, sporous, pulverizable, friable, crumbly, shivery, pulverized, attrite, in pieces.