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Glite Dictionary
milling

milling

7 8.8
A raised, ridged edge on a coin that stops people from cutting or faking it
  • noun
  • /ˈmɪlɪŋ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : muesca
  • The milling on the edge of the coin helps to prevent counterfeiting.
  • milling machine
  • milling operation
  • milling process

Examples

  • He examined the milling around the coin to ensure it was authentic.

  • Collectors often appreciate the intricate milling designs that add value to a coin.

  • Despite slow population growth, the young village by 1870 was already an established milling center.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Meanwhile, more efficient lumber and paper milling is already carving more value from the trees we cut.

    Academic text (2000)

  • The preacher, Mad Lorenzo Dow, announced to the milling throng that he had the latest news from hell.

    Academic text (1994)

  • Andy strides out onto the deck, through the milling tourists, flanked by Marcel and Amy.

    Fiction book (1997)

  • Ned enters the cavernous marble rotunda, turns down a hallway crowded with milling attorneys and defendants.

    Fiction book (1993)

Compounds

milling machine
  • Specialized
1 5.6

A tool with a spinning cutter that cuts and shapes metal and other hard materials

milling machinery
  • Specialized
5.3

Machines that grind or crush materials like grain into smaller pieces

Surface Forms

milling singular
millings plural

Morphology

milling = mill (opaque) = mill + ing

Although the word is formed with the regular noun suffix '-ing' from 'mill', the coin-edge meaning is a specialized technical sense that is not easily inferred from the base word by most learners.

Etymology

Milling comes from mill, a machine that 'grinds' or 'cuts', because coin edges were made by machines that left small ridges like the teeth of a mill. So, milling is the ridged edge on a coin that made it hard to shave off metal or make fake coins.