to go through the mill
- idiom
- Informal
:
pasar por un mal trago
- Many small businesses go through the mill during economic downturns, struggling to survive and adapt.
Examples
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After months of going through the mill, the team finally launched their product.
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His ideas had to go through the mill before being accepted by the board.
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She really went through the mill during her divorce, but came out stronger on the other side.
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Don't go through the mill!
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After losing his job, he had to go through the mill.
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After going through the mill of intense training, she felt more confident in her abilities.
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He had gone through the mill of grief, losing both his parents within a year.
Synonyms
15
7.0
To have a very hard and painful time in life
3
8.1
To face many difficult questions or strong criticism
To experience a very difficult and stressful time
Antonyms
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb phrase 'go through' commonly means 'experience' and 'mill' denotes a place where things are processed, so a learner who knows the parts can plausibly infer a metaphor of being processed or subjected to events. However, the specific idiomatic nuance of prolonged hardship or severe scrutiny is somewhat conventionalized and not fully predictable from the parts alone, so it requires prior exposure to be certain.
Etymology
Go through the mill may come from old grain mills where grain was forced between heavy stones and crushed. The picture of something being ground and beaten helps explain why saying someone went through the mill means 'to go through hard tests' or 'experience tough times'.