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millstone

[mil-stohn]
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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).

RELATED WORDS

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

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

Examples from the Web for millstone

Contemporary Examples of millstone

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.

  • 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.

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
n.

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

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper