millstone

[mil-stohn]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR millstone ON THESAURUS.COM

noun

either of a pair of circular stones between which grain or another substance is ground, as in a mill.

anything that grinds or crushes.

any heavy mental or emotional burden (often used in the phrase a millstone around one's neck).

Origin of millstone

before 1050; Middle English milneston, Old English mylenstān. See mill¹, stone

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for millstone

albatross, load, grievance, encumbrance, strain, affliction, worry, concern, misfortune, onus, cross, accountability, charge, hardship, blame, difficulty, anxiety, trouble, stress, task

Examples from the Web for millstone

Contemporary Examples of millstone

But the challenge of Europe is to accept a connection to a millstone that has the financial world teetering.
Could Europe’s Economic Crisis Sink Us?
Zachary Karabell
September 13, 2011
But all of this dubious wealth has become a millstone for the Swiss.
The End of Swiss Discretion
Eric Pape
October 1, 2009

Historical Examples of millstone

Thus, virtue did not become a burden, nor honor a millstone.
The Strollers
Frederic S. Isham
You have a heart harder than the millstone, more set than ice!
The Wild Geese
Stanley John Weyman
It were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck and that he be cast into the deep.
Masterpieces of Negro Eloquence
Various
No one ever got anywhere with anything with such a millstone around his neck.
Evening Round Up
William Crosbie Hunter
As man and millstone reached the sea the storm instantly ceased.
Legend Land, Vol. 1
Various

British Dictionary definitions for millstone

millstone

noun

one of a pair of heavy flat disc-shaped stones that are rotated one against the other to grind grain

a heavy burden, such as a responsibility or obligationhis debts were a millstone round his neck

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for millstone

Old English mylenstan, from mill (n.1) + stone (n.). Figurative sense of "a burden" (1720) is from Matt. xviii:6.