mill

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A building or factory where grain is crushed into flour, or where materials like cloth or paper are made.

   Her grandfather worked in the cotton mill all his life.

2. 2
   noun

   A small machine for grinding something into powder.

   Pepper tastes better when it is ground fresh from a mill.

3. 3
   verb

   To grind something in a mill.

   The farmers brought their grain to be milled into flour.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Mill is an Old English word whose deeper source is Latin molere, “to grind.” Early mills used wind or water power to grind grain into flour, and the same Latin root also produced meal and molar, the name of a grinding tooth.

From Middle English mylne, mille, from Old English mylen, from Proto-West Germanic *mulīnu (“mill”), from Late Latin molīna, molīnum, molīnus (“mill”), from Latin molō (“grind, mill”, verb), closely allied to Proto-Germanic *muljaną (“to crush, grind”) (see English millstone). Perhaps cognate with Milne (a surname). Doublet of moline, moulin, and blin.

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