▪ I. ˈwalk-mill1 Now rare.
[f. walk v.2 + mill n. Cf. G. walkmühle.]
A fulling-mill.
| 1359 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) I. 282 Juxta aquam quæ currit usque le Walkemilne. 1473 in Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879) I. 188 The tendis of the corn mil and walkmyl remenand fre to the abbay. a 1578 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.) II. 312 [The flood] buir away the walkmylnes. 1601 Holland Pliny xxxv. xi. II. 550 Simus took pleasure in painting a yong man lying asleepe in a waulke mill or Fullers worke-house. 1710 in Nairne Peerage Evid. (1874) 153 With multures walkmiln and pertinents therof. 1894 R. S. Ferguson Hist. Westmorld. 165 The ‘steads’ or sites of many disused ‘walk mills’ or fulling mills upon the Kent. |
b. Comb.
| 1344 Mem. Ripon (Surtees) I. 141 Jacens in le Walkmyln⁓banke. c 1460 Towneley Myst. xxx. 314 His luddokkys thai lowke like walk-mylne cloggys. |
Hence ˈwalk-miller.
| 1752 in Scots Mag. (1753) July 338/1 Angus Macdonald waulk-miller in Anchofragan. |
▪ II. ˈwalk-mill2
[walk v.1 or n.]
A mechanical contrivance or machine, the driving power of which is furnished by the walking of a horse, etc.
| 1773 W. Emerson Princ. Mech. (ed. 3) 286 List of Machines &c... Walk-mill. 1892 Daily News 15 Nov. 3/1 If there is no wind to supply the necessary power, the leader hopes that twelve men will be able to furnish it by means of a walk-mill, arranged on deck. |