elderly victim was a retired light-weight prize-fighter, and so, with the ready consent of everybody, a mill was arranged.
2. (thieves').—1. The treadmill; (2) a prison.
1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 2nd Ser., p. 156 (ed. 1851). A landsman said, 'I twig the chap—he's been upon the mill.'
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, viii. 'Was you never on the mill?' 'What mill?' inquired Oliver. 'What mill!—why, the mill—the mill as takes up so little room that it'll work inside a stone jug, and always goes better when the wind's low with people than when it's high, acos then they can't get workmen.'
1851-61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. etc., i. 390. A few weeks after I was grabbed for this, and got a month at the mill.
1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, 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.
3. (obsolete).—The old Insolvent Debtors' Court. Hence, to go through the mill = to be adjudicated bankrupt.
4. (military).—A guard-room in barracks; a jigger (q.v.).
5. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms see Monosyllable. Cf. Grind.
1719. Durfey, Pills etc. (quoted in), v. 139. For Peggy is a bonny lass, and grinds well her mill, For she will be Occupied when others they lie still.
6. (old).—A chisel.—Grose (1785); Matsell (1859).
Verb. (pugilistic).—1. To fight; to pummel; to kill: see quot. 1748. To mill the nob = to punch the head.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5th ed.). Mill . . . in the Canting Language, means to beat, thresh, maul, or kill a person.
1785, Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v.
1818. P. Egan, Boxiana, i. 10. When his Lordship, instead of redressing, set about milling him for his insolence.
1840. Thackeray, Shabby Genteel Story, viii. He had milled a policeman.
1840. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends (The Ghost). Boxing may be a very pretty Fancy, When Messrs. Burke or Bendigo engage:—'Tis not so well in Susan, Jane, or Nancy:—To get well mill'd by any one's an evil, But by a lady—'tis the very Devil.
1864. Eton School Days, iii. 38. Science, you know, is better than brute force, and although Chorley is older and bigger than me, if I knew how to mill I wouldn't stand still to be licked.
2. (old).—To rob. Also to break or force. Mill-lay (Grose, 1785) = burglary.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1869), p. 86. Yonder dwelleth a quyere cuffen, it were beneship to myll him.
1598. Stow, Survey of London (ed. 1754, vol. ii. p. 543). Add one phrase more in those times used among this sort, mylken, which is to commit a robbery, or Burghlary in the night in a dwelling house.
1609. Dekker, Lanthorne & Candlelight [Grosart, iii. p. 203], 'The Beggar's Curse.' The Ruffin cly the ghost of the Harman-beck. . . . If we niggle or mill but a poor Boozing-b i n. . . . Straight we're to the Cuffin Queer forced to bing.
1611. Middleton and Dekker, Roaring Girl, v. 1. A gage of ben Rom-bouse . . . is benar than a Caster, Peck, pennam, lay, or popler, Which we mill in deause-a-vile.
1621. Jonson, Gipsies Metamorphosed. Can they cant or mill? Are they masters in their art?
1622-65. Head and Kirkman, English Rogue, 'Bing out, bien Morts.' To mill each ken let cove bing then Thro' Ruffmans, Jague, or Laund.
1661. Fletcher, Beggar's Bush, v. 1. Tell us If it be milling of a lag of duds, The fetching-off a buck of clothes, or so?
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v.
1712. T. Shirley, Triumph of Wit, 'The Maunder's Praise of His Strowling
