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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mill 1       (mĭl)  Pronunciation Key  n.   A building equipped with machinery for grinding grain into flour or meal. A device or mechanism that grinds grain. A machine, such as one for stamping coins, that produces something by the repetition of a simple process. A steel roller bearing a raised design, used for making a die or a printing plate by pressure. Any of various machines for shaping, cutting, polishing, or dressing metal surfaces. A building or group of buildings equipped with machinery for processing raw materials into finished or industrial products: a textile mill; a steel mill. A building or collection of buildings that has machinery for manufacture; a factory. A machine or device that reduces a solid or coarse substance into pulp or minute grains by crushing, grinding, or pressing: a pepper mill. A machine that releases the juice of fruits and vegetables by pressing or grinding: a cider mill. A machine, such as one for stamping coins, that produces something by the repetition of a simple process. A steel roller bearing a raised design, used for making a die or a printing plate by pressure. Any of various machines for shaping, cutting, polishing, or dressing metal surfaces. A building or group of buildings equipped with machinery for processing raw materials into finished or industrial products: a textile mill; a steel mill. A building or collection of buildings that has machinery for manufacture; a factory. A building or group of buildings equipped with machinery for processing raw materials into finished or industrial products: a textile mill; a steel mill. A building or collection of buildings that has machinery for manufacture; a factory. 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. A slow or laborious process: It took three years to get the bill through the legislative mill. v.   milled, mill·ing, mills v.   tr. To grind, pulverize, or break down into smaller particles in a mill. To transform or process mechanically in a mill. To shape, polish, dress, or finish in a mill or with a milling tool. To produce a ridge around the edge of (a coin). To groove or flute the rim of (a coin or other metal object). To agitate or stir until foamy. Western U.S. To cause (cattle) to move in a circle or tightening spiral in order to stop a stampede. v.   intr. To move around in churning confusion: "A crowd of school children milled about on the curb looking scared" (Anne Tyler). Slang To fight with the fists; box. To undergo milling. [Middle English milne, mille, from Old English mylen, from Late Latin molīna, molīnum, from feminine and neuter of molīnus, of a mill, from Latin mola, millstone, from molere, to grind; see melə- in Indo-European roots.] To mill, in Western U.S. English, means "to run cattle in a circle, sometimes deliberately in order to halt a stampede." In the Oxford English Dictionary we find this 19th-century example of the verb: "At last the cattle ran with less energy, and it was presently easy to 'mill' them into a circle and to turn them where it seemed most desirable" (Munsey's Magazine). This usage of mill comes from the resemblance of the cattle's circular motion to the action of millstones. A related intransitive sense of the verb is better known in Standard English, as shown in the Oxford English Dictionary citation of an 1888 quotation from Theodore Roosevelt: "The cattle may begin to run, and then get 'milling'-that is, all crowd together into a mass like a ball, wherein they move round and round." Originally this sense of mill also meant "circular motion"; now it means "to move around in churning confusion" with no pattern in particular.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

mill·ing       (mĭl'ĭng)  Pronunciation Key  n.   The act or process of grinding, especially grinding grain into flour or meal. The operation of cutting, shaping, finishing, or working products manufactured in a mill. The ridges cut on the edges of coins.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

milling

noun

corrugated edge of a coin

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Milling

Mill\, n. [OE. mille, melle, mulle, milne, AS. myln, mylen; akin to D. molen, G. m["u]hle, OHG. mul[=i], mul[=i]n, Icel. mylna; all prob. from L. molina, fr. mola millstone; prop., that which grinds, akin to molere to grind, Goth. malan, G. mahlen, and to E. meal. [root]108. See Meal flour, and cf. Moline.]

1. A machine for grinding or comminuting any substance, as grain, by rubbing and crushing it between two hard, rough, or intented 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. (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.

7. (Mining) (a) An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained. (b) A passage underground through which ore is shot.

8. A milling cutter. See Illust. under Milling.

9. A pugilistic. [Cant] --R. D. Blackmore.

Edge mill, Flint mill, etc. See under Edge, Flint, etc.

Mill bar (Iron Works), 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.

Roller mill, a mill in which flour or meal is made by crushing grain between rollers.

Stamp mill (Mining), 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.

On-line Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

milling

milling: in CancerWEB's On-line Medical Dictionary