Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a housebreaker.

1663

Wandring-Whores Complaint title: A full discovery of the whole Trade of [...] Bawds, Whores, Fyles, Culls, Mobs, Budges, Shop-lifts, Glasiers, Mills, Bulkers, [...] and all other Artists, who are, and have been, Students of Whittington Colledge.

(b) housebreaking.

1676		‘A Newgate ex-prisoner’ A Warning for House-Keepers 3: Those that go upon the Mill, which are house-breakers, they are the most dangerous of all sorts, they have an instrument [...] which they call a Betty.
1714		A. Smith Lives of Most Noted Highway-men, etc. I 242: Upon the Mill, which is breaking open Houses in the Night.

(c) a chisel.

1703		Hell Upon Earth 5: Mill, a Chizel.
1708		J. Hall Memoirs (1714) 13: Mill, a Chizel.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Mill, a Chizzle.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.

(a) a prize-fight.

1811		Caledonian Mercury 14 Oct. 4/2: Bob Gregson tipped his customers a rum chaunt about the late mill.
1812		Mr Lawson ‘Chaunt’ in Egan Boxiana I 477: Come list ye all ye fighting Gills, / And Coves of boxing note, sirs, / Whilst I relate some bloody Mills, / In our time have been fought, sirs.
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London I 83: There was a most excellent mill at Moulsey Hurst on Thursday last, between the Gas-light man, who appears to be a game chicken, and a prime hammerer — he can give and take with any man — and Oliver — Gas beat him hollow, it was all Lombard-street to a china orange.
1827		P. Cunningham New South Wales II 64: Scientific mills often take place, also, between lads of the fancy, for prize purses.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 8: His rattler was sure to be full, both inside and out on the road to a prize mill.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 30 July n.p.: Tom is exceedingly anxious to meet in a ‘mill’ the victor of Smith, nelson and Murray .
1848		Paul Pry 4 Dec. n.p.: Mark you that short, slight, well-dressed young man, eagerly devouring the contents of Bell’s Life. [...] Do you want the result of the last ‘mill,’ or the probable issue of the next?—he is your man.
1853		N.Y. Clipper 2 July 1/4: the county round having contributed an unusual number of yokels, to whom good mills must be ‘like angel visits, few and far between’.
1859		G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 97: The ‘mill’ between Lurky Snaggs and Dan Pepper (the ‘Kiddy’) for one hundred pounds a side.
1860		Melbourne Punch 9 Aug. 7/1: ‘Slangiana’ [...] A serious fight why style a mill?
1869		J. Greenwood Seven Curses of London 379: Some brief account of a ‘mill’ that has recently taken place between those once highly-popular gentlemen — the members of the ‘P.R.’.
1878		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 27 Apr. 6/4: The Washington Market roughs swore by Boss Harrington and were always ready for a mill.
1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 5/2: A ‘mill’ took place in Essex on the 10th instant, between Taylor and Longen.
1886		Sporting Times 13 Feb. 5/5: After a merry mill [...] a ‘Corinthian’ took him for a ‘bung’.
1894		J. Astley Fifty Years (2nd edn) I 143: I used now and again to go and see a merry mill.
1900		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 7 July 7/3: [headline] Old-fashioned ‘Mill’ That Ended in the Usual Faction Fight.
1901		W.A. Sun. Times (Perth) 3 Nov. 1/1: His amazement at the mildness of the ‘mills’ upset the equilibrium of his well-waxed whiskers.
1903		A. Binstead Pitcher in Paradise 215: Nothing to be seen in the boxing world today can be compared to the merry mills of yesteryear.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 29 May 2nd sect. 10/4: Hawkes [...] is in pretty good fix for a mill with any of the heavyweight crowd.
1915		O.O. McIntyre Day By Day in New York 19 May [synd. col.] He’s been in many mills. He is use to the grind.
1916		N.Z. Truth 2 Aug. 8/6: [headline] Good Bare-Knuckled Mill.
1923		H.C. Witwer Fighting Blood 344: Eleven people in all at a battle for the heavyweight championship of the world and ten of the low-voiced eleven is connected with the mill as principals or officials.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 62: As twenty-four hours’ notice is much more than I usually get for a mill, I cheered up considerably.

(b) a fight, a brawl. sometimes a battle.

1819		‘One of the Fancy’ Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 6: Just think, please your Majesties, how you’d prefer it / To mills such as Waterloo, here all the merit / To vulgar, red-coated rapscallions must fall.
1836		‘The Drummer’s Stick’ in Frisky Vocalist 5: So he laid them all upon the grass, / Brought forth the magic stick, alas! / They look’d at it till fit to burst, / They had a mill which should have it first.
1843		W.T. Moncrieff Scamps of London III ii: Lor, I had two or three mills, was thrown out of the house like a dog.
1853		‘Cuthbert Bede’ Adventures of Mr Verdant Green (1982) I 6: The jolly mills they used to have with the town cads.
1865		‘The County Jail’ in I. Beadle Comic and Sentimental Song Bk 55: At ten we raised a glorious mill / And smathered each other with right good will.
1868		Sportsman 23 Sept. 2/1: Notes on News [...] [A] lot of vestrymen, [...] got drunk, had a ‘merry mill’ among themselves.
1873		W.H. Thomes Slaver’s Adventures 248: Of all things I like to see a gallant mill.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Mar. 14/3: Our long stay at the Quay was rather enlivened by a couple of rounds between two amateur pugs [...] and their mill continued till an old gentleman stepped in.
1891		T.B. Reed Cock House Fellsgarth 59: Cottle brought a pair of gloves up this term, and young Lickford had an old pair; so we three and Ramshaw have been having an eight-handed mill.
1892		H. Nisbet Bushranger’s Sweetheart 308: ‘Will you delay our little mill until tomorrow morning?’.
1896		S. Crane George’s Mother (2001) 104: Zeusentell an’ O’Connor had a great old mill. They were scrappin’ all over the place.
1906		E. Dyson Fact’ry ’Ands 198: Hot ’n’ willin’ was ther mills he had up under ther roof.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Feb. 1/1: The threatened mill between the hairy theatrical clerk and the Grate-polisher is hoff.
1910		Sun. Times (Perth) 23 Jan. 2nd sect. 1/1: They Say [...] That the inevitable mill between the males will be painfully one-sided.
1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 191: To be hauled up by a boy you could knock into a cocked hat in a mill, to be warned, then dismissed like the veriest fag.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl.
1934		D. Hammett ‘His Brother’s Keeper’ in Nightmare Town (2001) 172: Boy, was that a mill!

(c) a blow, a punch.

1827		Standard (London) 20 Oct. n.p.: That’s right, Harry — go it — serve him out [...] tip him the nailer — show him the mill.
1833		H. Smith Gale Middleton 1 148: That crack upon the temple is a favourite mill of mine.

(a) (UK Und.) the Insolvent Debtors’ Court.

1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 179: Mill the old Insolvent Debtors’ Court. To go through themill is equivalent to being whitewashed.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 49: Mill, the insolvent court.

(b) any institution that acts to process its affairs by rote, rather than deal with them on their individual merits.

1899		Ade Fables in Sl. (1902) 93: A Modern Solomon, who had been chosen to preside as a Judge in a Divorce Mill, climbed to his Perch and unbuttoned his vest for the Wearisome Grind.
1904		Indian Advocate (Sacred Heart, OK) 1 Apr. 99: The divorce courts are so busy that they are generally referred to as ‘mills’.
1928		W. Winchell Your Broadway & Mine 13 Nov. [synd. col.] He has never been ordained [and] he got his [preaching] diploma through a diploma mill.
1929		S. Ornitz Haunch Paunch and Jowl 69: I began to haunt the entrance to Essex Market Magistrates’ Court, the East Side’s police tribunal ... It was a busy mill of agonized humanity.
1932		E.S. Gardner ‘Honest Money’ in Penzler Pulp Fiction (2006) 42: Graves [...] told me her’d let me cop a minimum sentence if I’d rush her through the mill and make a plea.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 332: I got a couple of diploma-mill doctors that I wouldn’t let work on my own dog.
1957		M. Shulman Rally Round the Flag, Boys! (1959) 48: Doc [...] had received his M.D. from a Boston diploma mill.
1970		Gaddis & Long Panzram (2002) 95: A pain-and-punishment mill of almost legendary repute, Clinton Prison had virtually lost its name [...] in favor of Dannemora.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Hollywood Fuck Pad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 208: Those places were abortion mills back in the ’50s.

(c) (US drugs) anywhere that pure narcotics (e.g. heroin, crack cocaine), purchased in bulk, is diluted and packaged for street sales.

1989		(con. 1950s) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 66: Dope is maybe 97 or 98 percent pure [...] The big boys, they’ll sell it to somebody who’s damn near as big, somebody who’ll buy a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of dope. They’ll take the dope – they call the place where they cut up the dope ‘mills’ – they’ll take it and put twice as much on it as there is dope.
1996		(con. 1969) J. Lardner Crusader 129: [H]e pointed out several ‘mills’—apartments and storefronts used for cutting, packaging, and stashing heroin .
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 43: He set up a processing mill. He bought heroin, mannitol (a dilutant), a glass table, six chairs, a triple-beam scale, and glassine envelopes.
2017		D. Winslow The Force [ebook] It was a crack mill [...] You hit it by the book, a warrant and everything, and the dealer didn’t run—he just sat there calmly and said, ‘Take it’.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] The Mexicans bring the heroin [...] to New York and store it in apartments and houses [...] At these ‘mills’ they cut the H up into dime bags and sell it to the retailers.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 4: High-rise heroin mills, shotgun-house crack emporiums.

(a) a treadmill.

1833		‘The Cly-Pecker’ in Swell!!! or, Slap-Up Chaunter 39: And the next day the beaks made her grind at the mill.
1841		‘The Mill! The Mill!’ Dublin Comic Songster 104: I’m on the mill, I’m on the mill.
1843		in upsetvictorians.blogspot.com 🌐 ‘[I] was quodded for prigging and had twelve-pennorth at the mill’.
1857		Paul Pry (London 15 Aug. n.p.: The ugly Jew and bully [is] not to decoy young girls [...] or perhaps he will get what he richly deserves — twelve months on the mill.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1865		T. Archer Pauper, Thief and Convict 162: The tread-wheel, which was first brought into use at Brixton prison in 1817 [...] has been the terror of idle scoundrels ever since, and is generally known among them as ‘the mill.’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1888		J. Runciman Chequers 143: At one you mount the mill again.
1892		E.W. Rogers [perf. Marie Lloyd] G’arn Away 🎵 ‘Who cut all yer ’air orff? why, you’ve been upon the mill’.
1894		Harrington & LeBrunn [perf. Vesta Tilley] A Nice, Quiet Week 🎵 How stern - how sharp Mr Justice was ‘As you came to seek, my friends, just a quiet week my friends / You shall have one each upon our mill’.

(b) a prison; thus attrib (see cite 1838).

1833		‘The Covey Of The Mill’ in Regular Thing, And No Mistake 64: He’s gone to Brixton Mill for the prigging he has done.
1838		‘Paul Pry’ Oddities of London Life II 229: ‘I know the “mill-cut” too well to make a mistake.’ The magistrate was informed that the practice of cutting the hair close of those bad characters who were sent to hard labour, had the good effect for at least a month after they were discharged of showing that the party had been under the hands of the ‘Brixton barber’.
1841		‘Pat And His Leather Breeches’ Dublin Comic Songster 155: The justice spoke his will, / And with upbraiding speeches, / He sent me to the mill.
1853		G.J. Whyte-Melville Digby Grand Ch. x: The latter worthy... gave a policeman such a licking the other night, that he was within an ace of getting a month at the mill.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 15/1: One day he got rather lumpy / And got sent seven days to the mill.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 49: Mill, [...] a prison.
1908		Hopper & Bechdolt ‘9009’ (1909) 4: You’ll wish that more’n once before ye’ve croaked in this mill!
1917		C. Sherwood diary 10 Dec. 🌐 Patton and Finke turned loose. Peine put in mill.
1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 29/2: MILL. A prison or jail.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 138/2: Mill. (Chiefly Central and mid-Western) A prison; a jail; reformatory; penitentiary.

(c) a military prison or guardhouse.

c.1880		‘O’Reilly’ [US army poem] They ran him in the mill, they’ve got him in there still, / His bob-tail’s coming back by mail, / O’Reilly’s gone to Hell.
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 104: Jack Fahey [...] had been busted from post Sergeant-Major [...] and he had been running mate of mine in the mill off and on.
1906		C. M’Govern ‘Soldier Sl.’ in Sarjint Larry an’ Frinds n.p.: mill:— Guardhouse.
1918		D.G. Rowse Doughboy Dope 45: J is the Jug, otherwise known as the can, the pen or the mill.
1928		(con. 1918) L. Nason Sergeant Eadie 78: Put ’em in the mill!
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Jail [...] Mill.

(a) (US) a typewriter [it ‘grinds out’ the words].

1911		Pacific Mthly Aug. 29/1: Plenty of time was left before the front page went down [...] andI hammered the story off on my ‘mill’ .
1919		E. Hemingway letter 3 Mar. in Baker Sel. Letters (1981) 321: My typewriter, slang for mill, battered key board etc.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 107: He had learned to operate the ‘mill’ overseas in a machine gun unit.
1948		Mencken Amer. Lang. Supplement II 717: Writers’ cramp was cured [...] on the advent of the mill, i.e., the typewriter.
1969		J. Crumley One to Count Cadence (1987) 47: We recorded the messages – Morse Code groups by typewriter (mill) and voice on tape. [Ibid.] 52: I saw him resting his head on his mill.

(b) (US) the engine of an aircraft or ‘souped up’ car; thus turn the mill, start the engine [note WWI Fr. sl. moulin à café, ‘coffee-mill’, i.e. coffee-grinder, a machine gun, operated by a crank handle].

1918		Atlantic Monthly Sept. 414: Motor is ‘moulin’ — to start it, one ‘turns the mill.’.
1937		(con. WW1) E.C. Parsons Great Adneture 277: It was fully ten minutes before he could get his old mill grinding, and once got in the air he climbed so slowly [...] that we’d all gotten into formation and gone on.
c.1943		‘Bill O. Lading’ You Chirped a Chinful!! n.p.: Mill: Airplane motor.
1954		‘Hot Rod Lexicon’ in Hepster’s Dict. 5: Mill – Automobile engine.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 16: How many carbs on your mill?
1977		(con. 1961) P. Caputo Rumor of War 26: a chopped Chevy with a California rake, four-speed stick, four-eleven rear end, and a fuel-injected mill.