mill

Everyday

1. A mill is a building with machines for grinding grain into flour, often powered by wind or water. tree →
2. A factory where things like cotton, paper or steel are made. tree →
3. A small machine for grinding, such as a pepper mill. tree →
4. To mill around is to move about in a crowd without going anywhere special. tree →

In the lessons

Used in history (windmills, watermills, cotton mills in the Industrial Revolution), science (wind and water power), cooking (pepper mill). Phrases: «run-of-the-mill» (ordinary), «go through the mill» (have a hard time), «mill around».

Examples

• The old water mill ground wheat into flour. tree →
• Workers in the cotton mill worked long hours. tree →
• Grind some pepper with the pepper mill. tree →
• Fans milled around outside the stadium. tree →
• It was just a run-of-the-mill day. tree →
• The windmill's sails turned in the breeze. tree →
• There he sees a mill[381] standing. tree →

Note

Countable as a noun. Miller = a person who runs a mill. «Run-of-the-mill» = ordinary. Do not confuse with «mil» (short for millilitre or a thousandth).

In Jewish tradition

A mill may not be taken as a pledge for a debt, because it is needed to make food. Even the lowest servant at the mill is struck in the last plague.

Interpretation. The rabbis read the mill law widely: nothing needed to make a person's food may be seized. This protects a poor person's life.

Examples

• No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he taketh a man's life to pledge. (Torah DEU.24.6, JPS 1917) tree →
• and all the first-born in the land of Egypt shall die, from the first-born of Pharaoh that sitteth upon his throne, even unto the first-born of the maid-servant that is behind the mill; and all the first-born of cattle. (Torah EXO.11.5, JPS 1917) tree →
• The young men have borne the mill, and the children have stumbled under the wood. (Writings LAM.5.13, JPS 1917) tree →

Note

Countable as a noun. Miller = a person who runs a mill. «Run-of-the-mill» = ordinary. Do not confuse with «mil» (short for millilitre or a thousandth).