Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. One of a pair of cylindrical stones used in a mill for grinding grain.
- n. A heavy weight; a burden: This job is a millstone around my neck.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of a pair of cylindrical stones used in a mill for grinding grain. The kind of stone best adapted for this use is known as burstone, and is found in France and in Georgia. U. S. The two stones are placed one over the other; and in the operation of grinding one of them remains at rest and is called the bed, while the other, usually the upper stone, revolves and is called the runner. (See
mill , 1.) The face of a millstone is cut with lines or channels calledfurrows , which lead from the center to the circumference and have flat spaces between them calledland . The furrows and land are together called the dress; they are arranged in various ways. A sunken space about the eye of the stone is called the bosom.
Wiktionary
- n. A large round stone used for grinding grain.
- n. geology A coarse-grained sandstone used for making such stones; millstone grit
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. One of two circular stones used for grinding grain or other substance in a mill{1}.
WordNet 3.0
- n. any load that is difficult to carry
- n. (figurative) something that hinders or handicaps
- n. one of a pair of heavy flat disk-shaped stones that are rotated against one another to grind the grain
Examples
“PLEASANT GROVE CITY, Utah — Across the street from City Hall here sits a small park with about a dozen donated buildings and objects — a wishing well, a millstone from the city’s first flour mill and an imposing red granite monument inscribed with the Ten Commandments.”
Tiny sect believes God gave Moses Seven Aphorisms before giving the Ten Commandments
“Piran is said to have journeyed across the seas on a millstone, which is a mythical way of saying that he brought his altar-stone with him.”
“A few years back it was an axiom of the trade that the condition of the millstone was the key to successful milling.”
“Of course the cleaning machinery is the same In both cases, so are the elevators, conveyors, bolting chests, etc. But to use the millstone is a debatable question.”
“At the beginning of a march it may seem a mere nothing, in an hour it is an oppression; in three a millstone is a feather compared with it; and before night the inexperienced packer feels that, like Atlas, he bears the world upon his shoulders.”
“We decided that the answer was much like the Afghan proverb: "The wheat is a little wet, but the millstone is a little dull.”
“A millstone was a heavy grinding stone so large that it had to be turned by a donkey.”
“Israel's astonishing victory in that conflict instantly transformed the "millstone" into an American asset, a hardy fellow democracy and Cold War ally.”
The Wall Street Journal: Israel Is Now America's Closest Ally
“His being the first Roman Catholic presidential candidate had become a "millstone" around his campaign's neck.”
“C4 really do seem to be on a kamikaze mission to lose the 'millstone' of their public service broadcasting ethos so they can concentrate on a ratings-push.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘millstone’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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IMCO - EU nomenclature
includes words of the "Prodcom list"
abaca, abdominal, abrasive, absorbent, absorber, accelerator, accessory, account book, accumulator, acebutolol, acetaldehyde, acetamide and 4515 more...
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RELI - words with Biblical connotations
Words in the Bible evoking biblical stories or with special spiritual meaning. Proper names have been reduced to the minimum.
ark, judgement, holy, saint, baptism, spirit, love, eternal, altar, balsam, covenant, flood and 1115 more...
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mills
molinary, quern, beetle, coimbatore, piecener, Disley, shude, stive, millage, chomage, windmills, millstone and 10 more...
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good ones
grumble, fumble, bumble, stumble, crumble, mumble, jumble, humble, bramble, scramble, amble, ramble and 191 more...
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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Murakam...
found while reading
frontispiece, expedient, dapple, sheaf, downy, rivet, curriculum vitae, furtive, austerity, rebuke, prognostication, pedigree and 99 more...
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What's next here?
thunderhead, thundercloud, cumulus, cumulonimbus, fibrous, hazy, glaciated, cirrus, nimbus, meteorology, fahrenheit, thermoscope and 285 more...
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D's Words
If you could "tag" people....
allemande, bebop, excessive, assiduous, bailiwick, bandana, befuddle, busker, disconcerting, clothespin, cogitate, cultivar and 55 more...
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Mill
The milling of grain: tools, people, processes, laws.
mill, grain, flour, miller, water-wheel, meal, thirl, thirlage, sucken, suckener, astricted, outsucken and 33 more...
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2011 August
cajolery, vexing, irk, grindstone, millstone, candid, subterfuge, culprit, arraigned, faltering, modicum, surmise and 58 more...
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Magic inspired
tranquility, obliterate, megrim, allay, opalescence, ascendant, attunement, coercion, prismatic, palliation, dynamo, aperture and 15 more...
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