rolling mill

American  

noun

1. a mill where ingots, slabs, sheets, etc., of usually hot metal are passed between rolls to give them a certain thickness or cross-sectional form.

2. a machine or set of rollers for rolling out or shaping metal.

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rolling mill British  

noun

1. a mill or factory where ingots of heated metal are passed between rollers to produce sheets or bars of a required cross section and form

2. a machine having rollers that may be shaped to reduce ingots, etc, to a required cross section and form

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Etymology

Origin of rolling mill

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90

Example Sentences

One example Lewis gives: The hot rolling mill, which squeezes red hot steel slabs into giant coils, at U.S.

From Barron's • Nov. 4, 2025

It is building a rolling mill in Alabama, but the project isn’t yet completed.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 6, 2025

It contained a coking plant, a lime shop, a blast furnace, a converter shop and a powerful rolling mill.

From Washington Post • May 12, 2022

When Braidy Industries announced in April that it would build a $1.3 billion, state-of-the-art aluminum rolling mill offering some 550 well-paying jobs, few people in the Tri-State had ever heard of the company.

From Washington Times • Nov. 15, 2017

One day Mars Bar would lead Maniac down the river, down the tracks, past the railroad gondolas, each with its mountain of coal, to the rolling mill at the steel plant where his father worked.

From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli