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steel mill

steel mill

18 3.3
A factory that makes steel from raw materials
  • noun
  • /stiːl mɪl/
translation icon : siderúrgica
  • Company B purchases the steel mill for one million dollars.
  • work in steel mill
  • industries such as steel mills
  • steel mills and coal

They're working in the textile mills and the steel mills in New England.

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Examples

  • Alabama, for example, had a complex of steel mills.

    Academic text (1997)
  • Oh, when I was in college, I was working part-time during the summer at a steel mill.

  • - Has he taken you to the steel mill yet?

  • My mother worked at a factory, and my father worked at a steel mill.

  • We were driving by his office at the steel mill, a different kind of fire and smoke shooting from the stacks.

    Fiction book (1993)
  • At every step, the steel mill can be regulated, taxed, and controlled by the government.

    Academic text (1991)
  • We should have lost hope when the steel mill closed down, but that was the year our beloved Chiefs won the Federal Cup, led by the infamous Hanson Brothers.

  • A trade barrier that protects a Jones job in the steel mill destroys Smith's job in the tire factory or the pharmaceutical lab.

  • The convergence of railroads and waterways resulted in steel mills popping up along the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

    Academic text (2011)
  • My father worked at a steel mill where they manufactured various metal products.

Synonyms

mill
vssteel mill
171 2.3

A building where things are made or raw materials are processed

means specifically industrial production of metal from raw materials rather than general processing
steel plant
vssteel mill
4 3.7

A factory where steel is made from iron and other materials

focuses on manufacture from raw materials rather than using semi finished inputs
steel factory
vssteel mill
1 2.9

A factory where workers make steel from iron and other materials

is the same meaning but uses a different common term
steelwork
vssteel mill
  • UK
1 3.4

A factory where steel is made and processed

focuses on primary manufacturing from raw materials rather than later processing
steelworks
vssteel mill
  • UK
1 3.9

A factory or group of factories where people make steel

is narrower, referring to a single manufacturing site rather than several plants
metalworks
vssteel mill
1 4.2

A factory where people make things from metal like tools or machine parts

is about producing metal from raw materials rather than making finished objects

How Big

steelworks
  • UK
1 3.9
steel plant
4 3.7
steel mill
18 3.3

Surface Forms

steel mill singular
steel mills plural

Morphology

steel + mill

The meaning 'a factory where steel is manufactured' is directly compositional from 'steel' (the metal) + 'mill' (a facility for processing materials); the noun-noun compound denotes a mill for steel. This compounding pattern is regular in English and common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily infer the meaning.

Etymology

Steel mill is a simple picture: a mill is a place with big machines and steel is the metal they make. So, a steel mill is 'a factory where steel is made'.