mill
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: mĭl
ipa: /mɪl/
ipa: [mɪɫ]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [mɪo̯]
note: l-vocalizing: UK, General Australian, New Zealand
ipa: [mɪʊ̯]
rhymes: -ɪl
homophone: mil
Forms: form: mills
form: milling
form: milled
form: milled
Etymology: From Middle English mylne, mille, from Old English mylen, from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu (“mill”), from Late Latin molīna, molīnum, molīnus (“mill”), from Latin molō (“grind, mill”, verb), closely allied to Proto-Germanic *muljaną (“to crush, grind”) (see English millstone). Perhaps cognate with Milne (a surname). Doublet of moline, moulin, and blin.
Senses: examples: text: to mill flour
glosses: To grind or otherwise process in a mill or other machine.
glosses: To shape, polish, dress or finish using a machine.
glosses: To engrave one or more grooves or a pattern around the edge of (a cylindrical object such as a coin).
examples: text: I didn't have much to do, so I just milled around the town looking at the shops.
text: 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.
ref: 1895 November, Rudyard Kipling, The Second Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC:
text: As guests milled around them, he [Zuckerberg] described his goal of turning every person in the country with an internet connection into a Facebook user.
ref: 2021 July 8, Sheera Frenkel, Cecilia Kang, “Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg’s Partnership Did Not Survive Trump”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
qualifier: about
glosses: To move about in an aimless fashion.
raw_tags: followed by around
examples: text: to mill cattle
glosses: To cause to mill, or circle around.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: To swim underwater.
raw_tags: of air-breathing creatures
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: To swim suddenly in a new direction.
raw_tags: of a whale
examples: text: 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."
ref: 1888, Rudyard Kipling, The Madness of Private Ortheris:
text: […]he had “milled” a policeman
ref: 1861 January – 1862 August, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, The Adventures of Philip on His Way through the World; […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […], published 1862, →OCLC:
glosses: To beat; to pound.
glosses: To pass through a fulling mill; to full, as cloth.
glosses: To roll (steel, etc.) into bars.
glosses: To make (drinking chocolate) frothy, as by churning.
examples: text: This maize mills well.
glosses: To undergo hulling.
glosses: To take part in a fistfight; to box.
topics: business
mining
glosses: To fill (a winze or interior incline) with broken ore, to be drawn out at the bottom.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1611, Thomas Middleton, “The Roaring Girl”, in Arthur Henry Bullen, editor, The Works of Thomas Middleton, volume 4, published 1885, act 5, scene 1, pages 128–129:
text: 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.
ref: 1818, Walter Scott, chapter 6, in The Heart of Midlothian:
qualifier: thieves' cant
glosses: To commit burglary.
Synonyms: sense: move about in an aimless fashion
word: roam
sense: move about in an aimless fashion
word: wander
Derived terms: free-milling
millability
millable
mill about
mill around
nonmilled
remill
unmilled