Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
rum mill

rum mill

9.0
A place or group where people spread gossip quickly
  • noun
  • Archaic
: rumor
  • The rum mill at her office spreads news faster than any official memo.

Examples

  • Before long, the rum mill had twisted the story into something completely different.

  • He didn't believe anything he heard from the local rum mill.

  • The office is a real rum mill these days.

  • Everyone in town knows that the rum mill is always busy.

  • The small café became a popular rum mill where everyone shared the latest gossip.

  • At the high school, the rum mill churned out all sorts of exaggerated stories about the students.

  • Whenever there is a big event, the rum mill in our neighborhood never stops buzzing.

Synonyms

grapevine
vsrum mill
  • Informal
27 3.5

Rumor spread by people talking rather than by officials

is the original source rather than the channel of spread
scuttlebutt
vsrum mill
  • Informal
11 8.8

Rumor or gossip, often not confirmed and shared informally

is the place where such talk begins, not only the talk itself
rumor mill
vsrum mill
  • Informal
7 4.5

A group or network that spreads gossip and stories not checked for truth

is the specific origin or source that starts such unverified talk

Antonyms

fact
∞ 1.0

Something that can be shown to be true, not an opinion

truth
∞ 1.0

A fact that shows how things really are

Surface Forms

rum mill singular
rum mills plural

Morphology

rum + mill

The constituents as listed — 'rum' (an alcoholic spirit) and 'mill' (a processing facility) — do not transparently combine to mean 'a source of gossip'. The idiomatic sense (likely intended as 'rumour mill' or a metaphorical producer of rumors) is unpredictable from the literal words and would not be clear to a B1 learner who knows only the constituent meanings.

Etymology

Rum mill may come from the image of a mill that makes or changes things; imagine news being put into a small factory and coming out different. One popular story says that when people pass news through that 'mill' it becomes 'gossip' or 'rumors', which is why the phrase means a place that makes or spreads gossip.