pug mill

American  

noun

1. a mill for grinding and mixing materials, as clay or the ingredients of cement, to a desired condition.

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Etymology

Origin of pug mill

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

A large metal cylinder supported by a metal base, the Extruder does exactly what you might imagine: like a souped-up pug mill, it uses an electric motor to exert more than six thousand pounds of pressure on wet clay, pushing it through different molds and shapes, and then dropping it onto a catchment, which can be positioned at various heights.

From The New Yorker

Water and sand were added, and the concoction was mixed in a pug mill.

From Washington Post

The first machine used to do all this work goes by the humble name of pug mill.

From Project Gutenberg

The pug mill has assumed many different forms in this age; and separate preliminary mills, consisting of rollers of different forms for grinding, alone are often used before the mixing operation.

From Project Gutenberg

In some the pug mill is arranged horizontally to feed out the clay in the form of a long horizontal slab, which is cut up into proper lengths to form the bricks.

From Project Gutenberg