millstone

[ mil-stohn ]

noun

1. either of a pair of circular stones between which grain or another substance is ground, as in a mill.
2. anything that grinds or crushes.
3. any heavy mental or emotional burden (often used in the phrase a millstone around one's neck ).

millstone

/ ˈmɪlˌstəʊn /

noun

1. one of a pair of heavy flat disc-shaped stones that are rotated one against the other to grind grain
2. a heavy burden, such as a responsibility or obligation

   his debts were a millstone round his neck

Word History and Origins

Origin of millstone¹

before 1050; Middle English milneston, Old English mylenstān. See mill ¹, stone

Example Sentences

This is perhaps my most Chronically Online Hot Take, but Musk seems to have bought a millstone, not a cultural touchstone.

From MIT Technology Review

Start-ups sputtered, and the stock options employees hoped would make them millionaires instead became millstones.

From Washington Post

Unlike in the 1990s, the Taliban no longer have a millstone around their neck in the form of Osama bin Laden, the terrorist mastermind and wealthy Saudi financier who effectively bought his sanctuary in Afghanistan by bankrolling the group.

From Ozy

But the challenge of Europe is to accept a connection to a millstone that has the financial world teetering.

From The Daily Beast

But all of this dubious wealth has become a millstone for the Swiss.

From The Daily Beast

Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.

From Project Gutenberg

In other respects—never having been appealed to by love—it was as hard as a small millstone.

From Project Gutenberg

He owed them money, which at present he could not pay; his undischarged “debts of honour” hung like a millstone round his neck.

From Project Gutenberg

It was a thin slab, roughly circular in shape; not unlike what one might suppose a millstone to be in the rough.

From Project Gutenberg

I soon found he was a regular millstone round my neck—particularly when we were on the “walk-about.”

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• burden