Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. robbing, stealing.

1728		J. Dalton Narrative of Street-Robberies 59: Adieu to all the hurry-scurry of Foot-Scampering, filing, chiving, milling, and sneaking.
1739		Poor Robin n.p.: Money is now a hard commodity to get, insomuch that some will venture their necks for it, by padding, cloying, milling, filching, nabbing, etc., all which in plain English is only stealing [N].

2. of a horse, kicking.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 739/1: –1897 †.

3. a beating, a thrashing.

c.1813		‘Captain Mulligan’ in Wellington’s Laurels 4: Cruel Jewel Killing Milling Mrs. Mulligan.
1822		‘The Treadmill’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 139: And he who brought the Bill in, / Is threatn’d by the cribbing coves / That he shall have a milling.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 171: If Adam had been fly he would have taught his sons to box [...] Cain would have given Abel a good milling, perhaps queered his ogles, or spoiled his box of dominoes.
1849		Sam Sly 21 Apr. 2/2: John Wh—ley [...] not to try after other people’s girls, or else we shall give him a milling, and such a severe one that he won't relish.
1862		J.R. Lowell Biglow Papers 2nd Ser. (1880) 74: All is, to give the other side a millin’.
1868		‘The Famous East Side of Town’ in Rootle-Tum Songster 15: To assist a poor fellow they are willing [...] But insult them, you’re sure of a ‘milling’.
c.1895		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Wrong Man 🎵 Say I ‘He lives at number six’ Says Joe ‘He'll get a milling’.
1927		(con. 1835–40) P. Herring Bold Bendigo 114: By the looks of him he got a damn good milling.

4. (also milling-bout, milling match) boxing for money, prize-fighting; also attrib.

1811		Caledonian Mercury 14 Oct. 4/2: A Milling grubbing Match. Tom Crib [...] took the chair at Gregson’s at a game dinner [...] surrounded by about threescore as prime swell coves as any in the milling fancy.
1812		Mr Lawson ‘Chaunt’ in Egan Boxiana I 477: The milling-bout they got that day, / Sent both ding-dong to glory.
1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 57: The memory of his milling glories past.
1824		National Advocate (N.Y.) 28 May 2/4: There was also a foot race for five dollars half the course round, and three milling matches – it being in Kings county, Baron Nabem of our Police did not feel authorised to carry them to the Roundabout.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 12: On that great day of milling, when blood lay in lakes.
1833		‘The Trotting Horse’ in Convivialist in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) IV 17: If any frisk or milling match should call me out of town / I will pass the blades, with white cockades, their whiskers hanging down.
1835		N.Y. Transcript 5 Feb. 2/2: Prize Fighting. — We would not have our readers conclude, because we published an account of the milling match of a day before yesterday, that we approve of such sport; on the contrary .
1843		Comic Almanack Sept. 376: That extraordinary ‘Brick’ Harry Gibbons, the descendant of the immortal Bill Gibbons (of great milling memory).
1851		Bell’s Life in Sydney 4 Oct. 1/3: Thus ending in a draw, after two hours and twenty-five minutes of scientific and manly milling.
1859		Cork Examiner 25 Nov. 3/2: Two young men [...] had a ‘milling match’ on the Lower Glanmire road, in which [one] received a severe fall.

5. fighting, usu. with the fists; also attrib.

1815		(con. 18C) W. Scott Guy Mannering (1999) 148: Men were men then, and fought other in the open field, and there was nae milling in the darkmans.
1822		‘Life in London’ in C. Hindley James Catnach (1878) 127: To shew his skill in the milling trade.
1842		Egan ‘The Bould Yeoman’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 137: Twas cut for cut while it did last, / Thrashing, licking, hard and fast, / Hard milling for the gold.
1843		Satirist & Sporting Chron. (Sydney) 4 Feb. 2/2: The strength of Baily did not keep pace with his good milling.
1856		Bell’s Life in London 5 Oct. 7/2: Gentlemen can be taught the noble and manly art of self-defence on easy terms. Amateurs attended upon [...] by the veteran, who is up to every dodge in the milling world.
1860		Bell’s Life in Sydney 7 Apr. 4/1: That portion of the Fancy [...] who go in for a slogging, would have been delighted [...] by the exhibition of an unflinching milling.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Jess’ in Sandburrs 19: Stop your millin’ now, right yere!
1936		A. Russell Gone Nomad 55: Just a hard, bare-knuckle ‘milling’ for the entertainment of the crowd.