millstone
Americannoun
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either of a pair of circular stones between which grain or another substance is ground, as in a mill.
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anything that grinds or crushes.
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any heavy mental or emotional burden (often used in the phrasea millstone around one's neck ).
noun
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one of a pair of heavy flat disc-shaped stones that are rotated one against the other to grind grain
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a heavy burden, such as a responsibility or obligation
his debts were a millstone round his neck
Etymology
Origin of millstone
before 1050; Middle English milneston, Old English mylenstān. See mill 1, stone
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It’s not a milestone so much, though, as a millstone.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 14, 2026
Yet today government paperwork is an ever-weightier millstone around the public’s neck.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 2, 2026
“She’s reduced the price. She can’t shift this property and it’s become a bit of a millstone around her neck.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 30, 2026
"She probably thought she was leaving something to her offspring, only to find that it's become a millstone," says Taylor.
From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2026
Paradoxically, a series of ‘improvements’, each of which was meant to make life easier, added up to a millstone around the necks of these farmers.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
