ˈmill-horse
[f. mill n.1 + horse n.]
a. A horse used for turning or working a mill.
| 1552 Huloet, Myll horse, molarius equus. 1577–87 Holinshed Chron. II. 17/1 As if a man would reason thus: Before saint Patrike his time there was no horssemill in Ireland: Ergo before his time there was no milhorsse. a 1586 Sidney Arcadia ii. (1590) 197 His Impresa was, a mill-horse still bound to goe in one circle. 1650 B. Discolliminium 19 Hob, my blind Mil-horse. 1781 C. Johnston Hist. J. Juniper II. 219, I was obliged to drudge on like a blinded mill-horse. |
b. transf. and fig.
| 1600 W. Watson Decacordon (1602) 47 And so by consequent all runne Hysteron Protheron, a milne horse, a King Pope, a Curch Spaniard. 1673 Dryden Amboyna ii. i, You are the mill-horses of mankind. 1890 Spectator 21 June, Will the work of intellectual mill-horses suit the..more sensitive natures of women? |
c. attrib.
| 1859 Mill On Liberty v. 203 The official body are under the constant temptation of sinking into indolent routine, or, if they now and then desert that mill-horse round, of rushing into some half-examined crudity which has struck the fancy of some leading member of the corps. 1881 Ruskin in Lett. Art & Lit. (1894) 65 It cost Turner forty years of mill-horse toil. 1903 Contemp. Rev. Oct. 514 Her mill-horse round of vain repetitions. |