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Definition of mill noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

mill

noun
 
 
/mɪl/
 
/mɪl/
Idioms
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  1.  
    a building fitted with equipment for grinding grain into flour; a machine for grinding grain
    • The old mill has been converted into apartments.
    • The mill can be seen grinding wheat.
    • The river was harnessed to drive many mills.
    see also watermill, windmillTopics Buildingsc1, Farmingc1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • corn
    • flour
    • grain
    • …
    verb + mill
    • operate
    • convert
    • restore
    • …
    mill + verb
    • grind something
    mill + noun
    • stone
    • wheel
    See full entry
  2.  
    (often in compounds) a factory that produces a particular type of material
    • a cotton/cloth/steel/paper mill
    • mill owners/workers
    • a textile/woollen mill
    • a northern mill town
    Synonyms factoryfactoryplant ▪ mill ▪ works ▪ yard ▪ workshop ▪ foundryThese are all words for buildings or places where things are made or where industrial processes take place.factory a building or group of buildings where goods are made, mainly by machine:
    • a chocolate/​cigarette/​clothing factory
    plant a factory or place where power is produced or an industrial process takes place:
    • a nuclear power plant
    • a manufacturing plant
    mill a factory that produces a particular type of material:
    • a cotton/​paper/​textile/​woollen mill
    works (often in compounds) a place where things are made or an industrial process takes place:
    • a brickworks
    • a steelworks
    • Raw materials were carried to the works by barge.
    yard (usually in compounds) an area of land used for building something:
    • a shipyard
    workshop a room or building in which things are made or repaired using hand tools or machinery (usually individual items or small numbers of items):
    • a car repair workshop
    foundry a factory where metal or glass is melted and made into different shapes or objects:
    • an iron foundry
    Patterns
    • a car/​chemical/​munitions factory/​plant
    • an engineering plant/​works
    • to manage/​run a factory/​plant/​mill/​works/​yard/​workshop/​foundry
    • to work in/​at a factory/​plant/​mill/​yard/​workshop/​foundry
    • factory/​mill/​foundry owners/​managers/​workers
    see also content mill, rolling mill, rumour mill, sawmillTopics Businessc1
    Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective
    • cotton
    • feed
    • jute
    • …
    verb + mill
    • operate
    • own
    • run
    • …
    mill + verb
    • produce something
    mill + noun
    • town
    • buildings
    • hand
    • …
    See full entry
  3. (often in compounds) a small machine for grinding a solid substance into powder
    • a pepper mill
    see also run-of-the-mill, treadmill
    4. Word OriginOld English mylen, based on late Latin molinum, from Latin mola ‘grindstone, mill’, from molere ‘to grind’.
Idioms
go through the mill | put somebody through the mill
  1. to have or make somebody have a difficult time
    • They really put me through the mill in my interview.
(all) grist to the/somebody’s mill (British English)
(North American English (all) grist for the/somebody’s mill)
  1. something that is useful to somebody for a particular purpose
    • Political sex scandals are all grist to the mill of the tabloid newspapers.
See mill in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee mill in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic English
Check pronunciation: mill

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