View synonyms for millstone

millstone

[ mil-stohn ]

Phonetic (Standard)IPA

noun

either of a pair of circular stones between which grain or another substance is ground, as in a mill.
anything that grinds or crushes.
any heavy mental or emotional burden (often used in the phrase a millstone around one's neck ).

millstone

/ ˈmɪlˌstəʊn /

one of a pair of heavy flat disc-shaped stones that are rotated one against the other to grind grain
a heavy burden, such as a responsibility or obligation
his debts were a millstone round his neck

before 1050; Middle English milneston, Old English mylenstān. See mill ¹, stone

But the challenge of Europe is to accept a connection to a millstone that has the financial world teetering.

But all of this dubious wealth has become a millstone for the Swiss.

Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.

In other respects—never having been appealed to by love—it was as hard as a small millstone.

He owed them money, which at present he could not pay; his undischarged “debts of honour” hung like a millstone round his neck.

It was a thin slab, roughly circular in shape; not unlike what one might suppose a millstone to be in the rough.

I soon found he was a regular millstone round my neck—particularly when we were on the “walk-about.”

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