Mill-Speak: "Sayings" from the Mill
Remember the miller when you eat your daily bread The worst wheel always creaks the most Mills don't grind if you given them no water No mill, no meal; no will, no deal - Greek-Roman proverb The mill of the gods grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly fine The lower millstone grinds as well as the upper The chronic debtor lives with a millstone around his neck Fare to middlin (fine to middlings) Where there's a mill there's a way- Where there's a will there's a way Time and tide wait for no man (tidal mill) You measure your neighbor's corn by your own bushel Wait your "turn" Turn of corn Who comes first to the mill, first must grind - Saxomy proverb ,Saxomy Law 1220 First come, first served - Swedish proverb Who so comth first to mille, first grynt - Chaucer-Canterbury Tales Every miller draws water to his own mill The mill is never silent while the damsel sings her song Oh, it's the same old grind Back to the old grind Not by a dam site It's all the grist that comes to his mill Milling around Mill round - windmill Sharp teeth biting the corne Grist for his or her mill It's all grist that comes to his mill Put through the mill -Run of the mill Judge your feed by your speed As still as a mill pond Old back (dam) gone out I am just a cog in a wheel Keep your nose to the grindstone Show your mettle Are you worth your mettle? A lot of water runs by the mill while the miller soundly sleeps - "it is just water over the dam." Much water runs while the miller sleeps - English Proverb Safe as a thief in a mill Many a miller, many a thief What is bolder than a miller's neck-cloth which takes a thief by the throat every morning - Fuller 1732 As stout as a miller's waistcoat, that takes a thief by the throat every day - German Here lies an honest miller, and that is Strange - Epitaph on Essex churchyard of a miller named Strange Like a miller's mare Dusty miller Dusty (apprentice) Miller's thumb Meal-er (English origin of miller) Meal-ing (English origin of milling) Meal-maker (Yorkshire 1272) Mill-man (Colchester 1373) Millering Molla (origin of the word mill- Latin molina) It is good to be sure; toll it again, quote the miller - The miller and his three sons When heather bells grow cockle shells, the miller and the priest will forget themselves -R. Chambers - Popular Rhymes of Scotland 1842 Put a miller, a weaver, and a tailor in a bag, and shake them, the first that comes out will be a thief - Howell 1659 The miller got never better moulter (toll) than he took with his own hands - Kelly 1721 Every honest miller has a golden thumb, well could he steal - Chaucer- Canterbury Tales Like Chaucer's Miller going through life fat, drunk, and stupid The lighter the dough the faster you go, the whiter the bread the sooner your dead! Mills and wives are ever wanting -Rays...English Proverbs 1813 Earth's a mill where we grind and wear mufflers - Robert Browning Millery, millery, dusty soul, how many sacks have you stole?- English Nursery Rhyme A millstone and the human heart are driven ever round. If they have nothing else to grind, they must themselves be ground - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen to the water mill through the live long day how the clicking of its wheel wears the hours away -Sarah Doiudney 1843-1926 Lesson of the Water Mill The mill cannot grind with the water that is past - Sarah Doiudney 1843-1926 An ax to grind - Ax Mill He's been through the mill - Colloquial To go through the mill, stood a while lot To draw water to one's mill Still water run no mills -Aghionby - Life of Bickerstaff The miller sees not all the water that goes by the his mill - Burton -Anatomy of Melancholy Back of the loaf is the snowy flour, and back of the flour is the mill And back of the mill is the wheat and the shower, And the sun and the father's will -Maltbie D. Babcock 1858-1901
There was a jolly miller once Lived on the river dee He worked and sun from morn till night No lark more blithe than he And this the burden of his song Forever used to be: 'I care for nobody, no not I If no one cares for me - Issac Bickerstaff 1780 O the little rusty dusty miller, Dusty was his coat, Dusty was his color, Dusty was the kiss I got from the miller, If I had my pockets Full of gold and siller, I would give it all To my dusty miller - A Nursery song popular from 1708 to 1866
The wind is right Bread is the staff of life Feel the workings of his mill Behind the loaf is the flour And behind the flour is the mill, Behind the mill is the wind and the shower And the sun, and the Father's will - A Blessing Old Mill your dear arms seem to stretch out in loving embrace to me Dry-land sailers - Wind millers Flag on the mill, ship in the bay - Sag Harbor, Long Island You can never tell upon whose grain the miller's pig was fattened - Old English Proverb The miller's hogs were always fat - Old American saying No miller can enter heaven - Old Normandy saying One who on earth has been a miller tells nought but lies afterward - Old Normandy saying Besides every mill stands a hill of sand (and sawdust) - Old German saying Men grind and grind in the mill of a truism and nothing comes out but what was put in - Ralph Waldo Emerson The mill goes toiling slowly round with steady and solemn creak - Eugene Field Her thoughts as still as the water under a ruined mill - Joseph Campbell 1881 I feel as stupid, from all you've said as if a mill wheel whirled in my head -Goethe -Faust Act 1 Though the mills of god grind slowly, Yet they grind exceedingly small; Though with patience he stands waiting, with exactness grinds he all - Friedrich von Logan : Retrbution 1655 Less good from genius we may find Than that from perseverance flowing So have good grist and hand to grind And keep the mill a-going - Robert Burton 1576-1640 Your eyes are so sharpe that you cannot only look Through a millstone, but cleane through the minde - John Lyly 1553-1601
Pick up the stones Dive into a millstone See far into a millstone Eyes dropped millstones Wept millstones The furrows should be made sharp at feather edge The noise of the damsel Keep your nose to the grindstone The mill wheels did go There goes the mill wheel Put your nose to the grindstone ....And hold one another noses to the grindstone hard - Robert Burton 1576-1640 Miller's mite The Milner and the Milne To Mill or to Meetin Jackstones Stone frolic Toll or pottle Bill stuff Millstone silver Miller's Cat Miller's fat The miller's horse is fed upon the grain of others Dust explosion- Hell fire Hell's bells- the warning bell Out of balance Proofed The farmer plows in the furrows and the miller puts in the furrows Miller's knot If it was not for the miller you would not have anything to eat Mill wheels a grinding All roads lead to the mill Be plentiful in meal Miller's soul The road was a millstone rather than an asset Whiten's with age The flouring of the stone Offals Tailings Head of the mill Roll out the barrel Give me cracked corn my master gone away Rode to the mill Down by the old mill stream Corn cracker Custom Millin Toll dish Public mills Full gate Heart of the mill Head of water Milling to infinity "New Process" milling And the sound of the millstones shall be heard no more - Jeremiah There are mill-rights and mill-wrongs A millwright's sweat is strong enough to will kill a snake (or toad) Wheat allowed to grow in the head as it stood, made bad bread which would not rise It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea - Luke XVII For if the flour be fresh and sound, Who careth in what mill 'twas ground? - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Kabira wept when he beheld the millstone roll, of that which passes 'Twixt the stones, nought goes forth whole - Eastwick - Bag o Behar More water glideth by the mill - than wots the miller of - Shakespeare - Titus Andronicus In hans' old mill his three black cats Watch the bins for the thieving rats Whisker and claw, they crouch in the night Their fine eyes smoldering green and bright - Walter de la Mare When meal comes to you that way, like the heated underside of a settin' hen, it bakes bread that makes city bread taste like cardboard No man shall take the nether or the upper millstone to pledge; for he taketh a man's life to pledge - Deuteronomy XXIV:6
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