A building equipped with machinery for grinding grain into flour, or any factory for processing raw materials. Also means to move around aimlessly in a crowd.
From Old English 'mylen,' from Latin 'molina,' from 'molere' (to grind). The verb sense of moving in circles comes from the circular motion of mill wheels and grinding stones.
The phrase 'run-of-the-mill' meaning 'ordinary' comes from the fact that most of what comes out of a mill is standard, everyday flour - not the special premium stuff. Mills literally produced the most common, basic product people needed.
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