to mill around
9
3.7
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
deambular
- Outside the gate, the Rodio nov-Penyagin party was still milling around the sidewalk.
- People mill around
I don't have the effort just to, to just mill around.
- I don't have the effort just to, to just mill around.
- Yeah, like milling around the harbor in Saint Petersburg just still.
- If you like ghosts or the dead, there's a lot of them there and they're milling around.
- Harry's milling around cooking, doing his thing while you guys are just living.
- But one of his favorite ones is to go to a swap meet or a rummage sale or whatever at any place where people are milling around looking shopping, right?
- And suddenly there's these these young bus buxom, these young buxom ladies milling around right there.
- And he was like he was like met the magazine man on death's doorstep just milling around out there.
Examples
-
Stace saw the men, women, and children milling around the giant elm that was known as the auction tree.
Fiction book (1990) -
The restaurant is empty except for a waiter milling around in the background, setting a few tables.
Fiction book (1995) -
All right, for those of you still milling around the door, find a seat, please.
-
More than 50 people were milling around, waiting for me to direct them.
Academic text (2010) -
"Get a doctor," Tom called to the people who stood milling around.
Fiction book (1992) -
Below, many of the workers mill around the yard, waiting to be liberated.
Fiction book (1993) -
The kids milled around him as Carl struggled to keep his own fear from showing.
Fiction book (1999) -
The crowds waited, milling around in the sun and purchasing snacks from the vendors.
Fiction book (2000) -
"How do we know any of them didn't do it?" She scrutinized the crowd aimlessly milling around.
Fiction book (2000) -
As the concert ended, fans began to mill around the venue, unsure of where to go next.
Synonyms
407
2.0
To stay in a place without doing anything important
379
1.3
Move around without a fixed direction, often slowly and in curves
214
1.7
To go on foot in a place without a clear purpose, often for pleasure
111
4.1
To spend time doing playful or unplanned activities
100
2.0
To move from place to place without a fixed home or plan
26
5.4
To stand or wait in a place without a clear reason
14
5.6
To move around in a group without a clear direction
8
3.1
To move around a place on your feet without a clear purpose
7
5.3
To move around a place without a clear reason, often in a group
5
6.5
To spend time doing small, not important tasks slowly without a clear plan
4
6.9
To walk around without a clear purpose
3
6.8
To walk slowly through a place without a clear purpose
3
5.9
To spend time somewhere doing nothing special
3
4.4
To stay in a place without a clear reason
2
7.7
Move around with no set place to go for fun
2
9.5
To waste time instead of doing the work you need
1
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
1
9.9
Move around without a clear plan or purpose
Walk around slowly without a plan
To travel slowly without a clear plan
Move around without a plan to have fun
Antonyms
How Aimless
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to move around aimlessly' is directly built from 'mill' (to move about restlessly or aimlessly) combined with 'around' (indicating movement in various places), so the MWE's meaning is transparently derivable from its parts. This is a regular verb + adverbial particle composition common in English and cross-linguistically familiar, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand it.
Etymology
The verb mill around may come from the image of grain turning inside a mill, or of people moving slowly in circles near a mill. That picture of going round and round with no clear path explains why mill around means 'to move about with no clear purpose'.