Mill, n. [OE. mille, melle, mulle, milne, AS. myln, mylen; akin to D. molen, G. mühle, OHG. mulī, mulīn, 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. √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 indented 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 encounter. 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.