mill

Pluralmills, mill

Formsmills, milling, milled

1. 1
   factorynouncountable

   A manufacturing plant that produces materials such as paper, steel, textiles, or flooring.

   The steel mill ran three shifts to meet wartime demand.

   Layoffs at the textile mill devastated the local economy.

   UsageOften with the product in front: a steel mill, a paper mill, a textile mill.

   Similarfactory, plant, works

2. 2
   grinding buildingnouncountable

   A building that houses grinding machinery, or one used for a similar trade such as weaving, fulling, or dyeing, including the whole business with its outbuildings and grounds.

   We toured the old stone mill, its waterwheel still turning beside the granary and stables.

   They converted the abandoned mill into apartments overlooking the canal.

   Similarfactory, works, plant

   Note

   A word that changed its trade without changing its name. Imagine a great-grandfather filling and loading flour sacks, while in the next generation the factory has a grandfather driving forklifts. Thomas Carlyle's Past and Present (1843) has an abbot fear that townsfolk will take their own corn to a new mill to grind. A modifier such as flouring mill usually tells the reader which kind is meant. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • Thomas Carlyle wrote Past and Present, first published in 1843. en.wikipedia.org
   • Abbot Samson predicts that townsfolk will use Dean Herbert's new windmill. He orders its demolition, and Herbert dismantles it; this passage does not report townsfolk actually using it. gutenberg.org
3. 3
   nouncountable

   A device or machine for grinding substances such as grain, spices, or other materials into powder, sometimes also used for polishing.

   Give the soup a few turns of the pepper mill before serving.

   Grinding beans in a hand-cranked coffee mill each morning gives a fresher cup.

   UsageOften with what it grinds: a pepper mill, a coffee mill.

   Similargrinder

4. 4
   grindverbtransitive

   To grind or otherwise process something in a mill or similar machine.

   Local farmers mill their wheat into flour at the cooperative.

   The company mills bauxite into a fine powder for industrial use.

   UsageYou can mill the raw grain (mill wheat) or the product (mill flour).

   Similargrind, crush, pulverize

5. 5
   nounderogatoryfigurativelycountable

   An establishment that routinely processes or turns out large quantities of something with little regard for quality, such as a business selling worthless diplomas or ready-made essays.

   The agency had become a visa mill, stamping applications without real scrutiny.

   Reviewers dismissed the studio as a content mill churning out forgettable films.

   UsageUsually after the thing turned out: a diploma mill, an essay mill, a puppy mill.

   Similarfactory

6. 6
   wander aboutverbintransitive

   To move about without clear purpose or direction, as people in a crowd.

   Shoppers milled through the market with no particular destination.

   Commuters mill on the platform whenever a train is delayed.

   UsageOften mill around or mill about. You can add a place: People milled around outside the stadium.

   Similarwander, drift, mingle, swarm, throng

   Note

   The crowd verb, and it rarely stands alone: people mill around, mill about, or, in Kipling's The Second Jungle Book (1895), mill "round and round in a circle." Kipling's deer and pigs show the picture underneath, bodies circling without going anywhere, which is why the herding verb can make cattle do it. Guests who "milled around" Mark Zuckerberg in December 2007 show the everyday use. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Rudyard Kipling wrote The Second Jungle Book, first published in 1895. en.wikisource.org
   • Kipling describes deer and pigs milling, using the exact words quoted. gutenberg.org
   • The account uses 'milled around' to describe guests around Zuckerberg and Sandberg. business-standard.com
   • The gathering occurred in December 2007; 2021 is the article's publication year. business-standard.com
7. 7
   shape by machineverbtransitive

   To use a machine to shape something or treat its surface by polishing, dressing, or other finishing work.

   Engineers mill the surface flat before assembling the engine.

   The plant milled the steel plates to exact thickness.

   Similarmachine, shape, finish, dress

   Note

   The machinist's verb is the work done on the milling machine, where a cutter takes material away from solid metal, wood or plastic. It takes the workpiece as its object and often a result phrase: mill a surface flat, mill plates to thickness. Unlike grinding grain, the point is to shape the material, not to reduce it to powder. The object comes out shaped, still itself.

8. 8
   nouncountable

   A machine tool that shapes solid metal, wood, or plastic by removing material with a rotating cutter.

   The machinist set up the mill to cut a precise groove in the aluminum.

   A CNC mill can shape complex parts from a single block of titanium.

   Note

   Machine-shop talk uses the word twice over: for the machine standing beside the lathes and drill presses, and for the cutter it spins. Someone who runs "the lathes, mills, and drill presses" means the machine. Someone who will "come in with a mill and do some contouring" means the tool. In writing, the full names milling machine and milling cutter remove the doubt. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

   • The quoted phrase occurs in an example referring to milling machines; no speaker is named. en.wiktionary.org
   • The quoted phrase occurs in an example for the milling-cutter sense; no speaker is named. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   nouncountable

   A unit of money equal to one thousandth of a US dollar (one tenth of a cent), used chiefly in property tax millage rates and utility pricing.

   The county set its levy at twelve mills for the coming fiscal year.

   A single mill on a property assessed at $200,000 yields $200 in tax.

   Note

   Property-tax rates are counted in these thousandths of assessed value, so one mill on the rate means one dollar for every thousand dollars of valuation. People discuss rates in whole mills, as when a levy "will probably go up by several mills," and the rate as a whole is the millage rate. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • A property-tax mill represents one thousandth of assessed value, equivalent to one dollar per thousand dollars of assessed valuation. andersontownshipoh.gov
   • The quoted wording occurs in an example about a property-tax rate; no speaker is named. en.wiktionary.org
   • The property-tax rate is called the millage rate. rfa.sc.gov
10. 10
    cutter bitnouncountable

    The rotating cutting tool fitted to a milling machine.

    He fitted a four-flute mill into the spindle before the run.

    The carbide mill sliced cleanly through the aluminum block.

    Similarcutter

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