mill

• enPR: mĭl, IPA^(key): /mɪl/, [mɪɫ]

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɪl
• Homophone: mil

From Middle English mille, milne, from Old English mylen, from Proto-Germanic *mulīnō or *mulīnaz, from Late Latin molinum or molinus, from Classical Latin mola. Perhaps cognate with Milne (a surname). Doublet of moulin.

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, derogatory) 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.

• (plant, building): factory, works

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. (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.

• (move about in an aimless fashion): roam, wander

• millable
• nonmilled
• unmilled

Ultimately from Latin millesimum.

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.

• (one thousandth part): permille, ‰, ₥

• (one thousandth part):
• percent
• basis point

• millage

mill (plural mills)

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

Back-formation from Millstone, a Magic: The Gathering card with this effect (first printed 1994).

• Mill (in the sense of "a strategy")

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

1. (transitive, trading card games) To move (a card) from a deck to the discard pile.
2. (transitive, Hearthstone) To destroy (a card) due to having a full hand.
   • 2018 October 9, Ozzie Mejia, “Hearthstone: 4 decks to watch during the 2018 HCT Fall Championship”, in Shacknews‎:

     what happens when a Quest Rogue uses Vanish and Malygos gets milled?

• (Hearthstone): burn

• self-mill

mill (countable and uncountable, plural mills)

1. (trading card games) Discarding a card from one's deck.
   • 2018 October 14, Jay Castello, “Pro Hearthstone player burns key card with perfect comedic timing”, in Rock Paper Shotgun‎:

     he’s had some fairly infamous mills in other events. Back in 2017’s Spring Championships, he burned the crucial Archmage Antonidas

2. (trading card games) A strategy centered on depleting the opponent's deck.
   • 2018 June 16, Wavelength, “Efficient Off-Meta Decks Spotlight”, in Fade2Karma‎:

     Kingsane^{[sic, meaning Kingsbane]} Rogue will forever have a negative connotation attached to it because it began as a mill deck, and mill is one of the most tilt-inducing strategies in fantasy card games.

   • 2018 September 24, Collin MacGregor, “Top 10 Guilds of Ravnica Commander Cards in Magic The Gathering”, in heavy.‎:

     Great for mill, control, or even Voltron decks, Mnemonic Betrayal is a fantastic addition regardless of your strategy.

• Mill Rogue

• mill in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• mill in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

• mill on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Mill in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)

From Proto-Albanian *mis-lo (regular sl > Alb. /ll/), from Proto-Indo-European *mois (“sheep, hide; leatherwork”). Compare Old High German meisa (“baggage”).

mill m (indefinite plural mije, definite singular milli, definite plural mijet)

1. sheath

• meshin

From Latin milium.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈmiʎ/

mill m (plural mills)

1. millet

• “mill” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.
• “mill” in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana.
• “mill” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “mill” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

• IPA^(key): [mʲiːlʲ], [mʲɪlʲ]

From Old Irish millid (“spoils, ruins, destroys”)

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

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

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

• "mill" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• “millid” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.
• Entries containing “mill” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “mill” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

• IPA^(key): /mɪl/

From Old Irish millid (“spoils, ruins, destroys”). Cognate with Irish mill and Scottish Gaelic mill.

mill (past vill, future independent millee, verbal noun milley, past participle millit)

1. destroy, ruin
2. spoil, tarnish
3. (as vision) blur
4. disfigure
5. corrupt
6. mess, tumble, rustle

   Ny mill m'olt. ― Don't tumble my hair.

From Old Irish mil, from Proto-Celtic *meli, from Proto-Indo-European *mélid. Cognate with Irish mil, Scottish Gaelic mil, Latin mel, Ancient Greek μέλι (méli). Akin to millish and blass.

mill m (genitive singular molley, plural millyn)

1. honey

• “mil” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

• IPA^(key): /miːʎ/

From Old Irish millid (“spoils, ruins, destroys”)

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

1. destroy, spoil, ruin

mill m

1. inflection of meall:
   1. genitive singular
   2. plural

• Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• “millid” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

• mil

mill

1. (anatomy) eye