Mill /(mĭl)/

Mill

n.
  1. A money of account of the United States, having the value of the tenth of a cent, or the thousandth of a dollar.

Mill

n.
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. A machine for grinding and polishing; as, a lapidary mill.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. A hardened steel roller having a design in relief, used for imprinting a reversed copy of the design in a softer metal, as copper. (Die Sinking)
  7. An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained. (Mining)
  8. A milling cutter. See Illust. under Milling.
  9. A pugilistic encounter. [Cant]
  10. Short for Treadmill.
  11. The raised or ridged edge or surface made in milling anything, as a coin or screw.
  12. A building or complex of buildings containing a mill{1} or other machinery to grind grains into flour.

Phrases & Compounds
Edge mill
See under Edge, Flint, etc.
Mill bar
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
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.

imp. & p. p. Milled; p. pr. & vb. n. Milling

  1. To reduce to fine particles, or to small pieces, in a mill; to grind; to comminute.
  2. To shape, finish, or transform by passing through a machine; specifically, to shape or dress, as metal, by means of a rotary cutter.
  3. 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.
  4. To pass through a fulling mill; to full, as cloth.
  5. To beat with the fists. [Cant]
  6. To roll into bars, as steel.

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

Mill

v. i.
  1. To swim under water; -- said of air-breathing creatures. (Zool.)
  2. To undergo hulling, as maize.
  3. To move in a circle, as cattle upon a plain; to move around aimlessly; -- usually used with around.
    The deer and the pig and the nilghar were milling round and round in a circle of eight or ten miles radius.
    — Kipling.
  4. To swim suddenly in a new direction; -- said of whales.
  5. To take part in a mill; to box. [Cant]

Mill

v. t.
  1. To fill (a winze or interior incline) with broken ore, to be drawn out at the bottom. (Mining)
  2. To cause to mill, or circle round, as cattle.