mill

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A building equipped with machinery for grinding grain into flour or meal.
2. n. A device or mechanism that grinds grain.
3. n. A machine or device that reduces a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains by crushing, grinding, or pressing: a pepper mill.
4. n. A machine that releases the juice of fruits and vegetables by pressing or grinding: a cider mill.
5. n. A machine, such as one for stamping coins, that produces something by the repetition of a simple process.
6. n. A steel roller bearing a raised design, used for making a die or a printing plate by pressure.
7. n. Any of various machines for shaping, cutting, polishing, or dressing metal surfaces.
8. n. A building or group of buildings equipped with machinery for processing raw materials into finished or industrial products: a textile mill; a steel mill.
9. n. A building or collection of buildings that has machinery for manufacture; a factory.
10. n. A process, agency, or institution that operates in a routine way or turns out products in the manner of a factory: The college was nothing more than a diploma mill.
11. n. A slow or laborious process: It took three years to get the bill through the legislative mill.
12. v. To grind, pulverize, or break down into smaller particles in a mill.
13. v. To transform or process mechanically in a mill.
14. v. To shape, polish, dress, or finish in a mill or with a milling tool.
15. v. To produce a ridge around the edge of (a coin).
16. v. To groove or flute the rim of (a coin or other metal object).
17. v. To agitate or stir until foamy.
18. v. Western U.S. To cause (cattle) to move in a circle or tightening spiral in order to stop a stampede.
19. v. To move around in churning confusion: "A crowd of school children milled about on the curb looking scared” ( Anne Tyler).
20. v. Slang To fight with the fists; box.
21. v. To undergo milling.
22. n. A monetary unit equal to ¹/₁₀₀₀ of a U.S. dollar or ¹/₁₀ of a cent.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A mechanical device for grinding grain for food. Ancient mills, and those still in use in uncivilized or half-civilized countries, are simple devices for rubbing or pounding the grain, commonly two stones, one of which is moved upon the other byhand. The common modern mill consists essentially of two flat circular stones, one of which is moved upon the other, and between which the grain is triturated. The bedstone and runner are together called a run of stones. In some mills the under stone is therunner. Such a mill is called an “under-runner,” while an “upperrunner” is one like that shown in the cut. The bush, g, in the bedstone is fastened in its place by wedges, The balance-rynd, j, is a curved bar which crosses the eye or central opening of the runner on the under side at the margin of the eye and supports the stone. The supporting bearing of the balance-rynd is a central socket called a cockeye, and the supporting point of the spindle which fits the cockeye is called the cockhead. The spindle, balance-rynd, and runner-stone are raised or lowered by means of the bridge-tree and lighter-screw to adjust the runner properly in relation to the bedstone. The hopper, p, receives the grain to be ground, and delivers it to the shoe, which is loosely supported, and kept constantly vibrating by the rotation of thedamsel, a sort of trundle-wheel, the trundles of which chatter against the shoe. Flour is also made by cylinder-mills or roller-mills. The rollers act by crushing, by crushing and rubbing, as when they are caused to run with different peripheral velocities, or by a cutting or scraping action, as when they are serrated and revolved in such manner that the cutting edges of one roller act toward the cutting edges of the other.
2. n. A machine for grinding or pulverizing any solid substance. The word in this use is generally in composition with a word denoting the purpose for which the mill is designed: as, paint-mill, quartz-mill, coffee-mill.
3. n. A machine which transforms raw material by a process other than grinding into forms fit for uses to which the raw material is unfitted. In this use also the word is generally in composition, as saw-mill, planing-mill, etc. This use of the word is, however, limited and arbitrary, many machines which transform raw materials not being called mills.
4. n. A machine which does its work by rotary motion, especially a lapidary wheel.
5. n. A treadmill.
6. n. A building in which grinding is done: often in composition: as, a flour-mill, water-mill, windmill, etc.
7. n. In metal., any establishment in which metalliferous ores are treated in the moist way, as by stamping and amalgamating, by grinding in pans, or by similar methods. Those works in which the reduction is performed by the aid of fire are usually designated smelting-works, or sometimes (especially in the case of iron) furnaces. In the manufacture of iron a mill is an establishment where the metal in the rougher form (that is, in that of blooms, slabs, rough bars, etc.) is worked up into various kinds of merchantable iron, or into those forms which are desired by the different classes of consumers of the metal, such as rails, plates, merchant bars, and many other similar products.
8. n. In calico-printing or bank-note engraving, a soft steel roller which receives under great pressure an impressed design in relief from a hardened steel engraved roll or die, and which is used in turn, after being hardened, to impart the design in intaglio to a calico-printing roll or note-printing plate.
9. n. A kind of screw-press introduced during the reign of Elizabeth into England from France, and designed to supersede the manufacture of gold coins by the primitive method of striking dies with a hammer. It was introduced in 1561, discontinued in 1572, reintroduced in 1656 and 1658, and permanently adopted shortly after the restoration of Charles II. The more modern coining-press has supplanted this machine. The mill not only struck the legend, but also raised the rim on the margin and serrated the edge. These serrations were at first straight; but, having been found easy to imitate by filing, they were made curvilinear in the reign of George II.
10. n. In mining, a passage or opening left for sending down stuff from the stopes to the level beneath.
11. To grind in a mill; grind; reduce to fine particles or to small pieces by grinding or other means. See milling.
12. To subject to the mechanical operations carried on in a mill, as a saw-mill or planing-mill; shape or finish by machinery. Specifically, in ceramics, to prepare (the clay) by passing it through a mill, which is usually of the form of an inverted cone, in the center of which is a vertical shaft set with knives. The clay, being thrown in at the top, is kneaded, cut, and pressed by the revolution of the shaft, and when it emerges from the bottom is plastic and ready for molding. See pugmill.
13. To cut (metal) with a milling-tool in a milling-machine.
14. To turn or upset the edge of (a coin) so as to produce a marginal ridge or flange on both sides, upon which, when laid flat, the coin rests, thus protecting the design which is inside of the flange from wear, and enabling the coins to lie firmly when piled together one upon another.
15. To flute the edge of, as of a coin, or of any flat piece of metal, as the head of a milled screw or the rim of a metal box-cover, to afford a hold for the fingers. The screws of optical and surgical instruments, and other philosophical apparatus, and also the covers of lubricators for machinery, are commonly milled.
16. To tumble (leather) in a hollow revolving cylinder in contact with oil or any ameliorating or tanning liquid, whereby the liquid is worked into all parts of the leather.
17. To throw, as undyed silk.
18. To thicken by fulling; full (cloth), as in a fulling-mill.
19. To yield, in the process of grinding or milling.
20. To beat severely with the fists; fight.
21. To cause to froth: as, to mill chocolate.
22. To move in a circular direction around a central point or object in a purposeless manner: said of cattle in herding on the plains.
23. To turn suddenly and change its course: said of a whale: as, the whale milled, and ran to leeward.
24. n. One thousandth part of anything; especially, in the monetary system of the United States, one thousandth of a dollar, or one tenth of a cent.
25. n. Millet.
26. To steal.
27. n. In leather manufacturing, an arrangement consisting of one or two large stone rollers which revolve vertically in a pit.
28. n. The raised or ridged edge or flange made in milling, stamping, rolling, or pressing anything, as a coin or a screw.
29. n. The entire plant for producing merchant bars and shapes, including the buildings, boilers, engines, mills, and accessories.
30. In sugar manufacturing, to pass (sugarcane) through a cane-mill. See sugar-mill.

Wiktionary

1. n. An obsolete coin with value one-thousandth of a dollar, or one-tenth of a cent.
2. n. One thousandth part, particularly in millage rates of property tax.
3. n. A grinding apparatus for substances such as grains, seeds, etc.
4. n. The building housing such a grinding apparatus.
5. n. A manufacturing plant for paper, steel, textiles, etc.
6. n. A building housing such a plant.
7. n. An establishment that handles a certain type of situation routinely, such as a divorce mill, etc.
8. n. informal an engine
9. n. informal a boxing match, fistfight
10. v. transitive To grind or otherwise process in a mill or other machine.
11. v. transitive To shape, polish, dress or finish using a machine.
12. v. transitive To engrave one or more grooves or a pattern around the edge of (a cylindrical object such as a coin).
13. v. intransitive (followed by around, about, etc.) To move about in an aimless fashion.
14. v. zoology To swim underwater.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A money of account of the United States, having the value of the tenth of a cent, or the thousandth of a dollar.
2. n. A machine for grinding or comminuting any substance, as grain, by rubbing and crushing it between two hard, rough, or indented surfaces
3. n. 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
4. n. A machine for grinding and polishing.
5. n. A common name for various machines which produce a manufactured product, or change the form of raw material by the continuous repetition of some simple action
6. n. A building or collection of buildings with machinery by which the processes of manufacturing are carried on
7. n. (Die Sinking) A hardened steel roller having a design in relief, used for imprinting a reversed copy of the design in a softer metal, as copper.
8. n. An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained.
9. n. A passage underground through which ore is shot.
10. n. A milling cutter. See Illust. under Milling.
11. n. Cant A pugilistic encounter.
12. n. Short for Treadmill.
13. n. The raised or ridged edge or surface made in milling anything, as a coin or screw.
14. n. A building or complex of buildings containing a mill{1} or other machinery to grind grains into flour.
15. v. To reduce to fine particles, or to small pieces, in a mill; to grind; to comminute.
16. v. To shape, finish, or transform by passing through a machine; specifically, to shape or dress, as metal, by means of a rotary cutter.
17. v. 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.
18. v. To pass through a fulling mill; to full, as cloth.
19. v. Cant To beat with the fists.
20. v. To roll into bars, as steel.
21. v. (Zoöl.) To swim under water; -- said of air-breathing creatures.
22. v. To undergo hulling, as maize.
23. v. To move in a circle, as cattle upon a plain; to move around aimlessly; -- usually used with around.
24. v. To swim suddenly in a new direction; -- said of whales.
25. v. Cant To take part in a mill; to box.
26. v. (Mining) To fill (a winze or interior incline) with broken ore, to be drawn out at the bottom.
27. v. To cause to mill, or circle round, as cattle.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. English philosopher and economist remembered for his interpretations of empiricism and utilitarianism (1806-1873)
2. n. the act of grinding to a powder or dust
3. v. roll out (metal) with a rolling machine
4. n. machinery that processes materials by grinding or crushing
5. n. a plant consisting of one or more buildings with facilities for manufacturing
6. v. move about in a confused manner
7. v. produce a ridge around the edge of
8. v. grind with a mill
9. n. Scottish philosopher who expounded Bentham's utilitarianism; father of John Stuart Mill (1773-1836)