MILL

10 definitions found across Law Mind sources

MILLAuthored
The Law Mind • 1230 words
Definition
MILL carries two distinct legal meanings that rarely intersect but appear frequently in different areas of legal research. 1. Physical mill (property and water law). A machine, engine, or structure used for grinding grain, sawing lumber, manufacturing, or similar industrial operations, together with the building housing that machinery. In property law, the term extends beyond the machine itself to encompass the mill-dam, mill-site, mill-privilege, and all land, buildings, and fixtures necessary or useful to the mill's operation. Courts have consistently construed mill-related conveyances broadly to include this full complex of associated structures and rights rather than the grinding apparatus alone. 2. Unit of monetary account (taxation and public finance). One-tenth of one cent, or one one-thousandth of a United States dollar ($0.001). The mill has no physical currency equivalent — no coin has ever been minted at this denomination — but it functions as a standard unit of calculation in property tax assessment, where tax rates are expressed in mills per dollar of assessed value (the "millage rate"). A property taxed at ten mills pays $10 for every $1,000 of assessed value. ---
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): One thousandth of a US dollar, or one tenth of a cent; also used in millage rates of property tax; occasionally a clipping of millimeter or an alternative form of mil (one thousandth of an inch). Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A money of account of the United States, having the value of the tenth of a cent, or the thousandth of a dollar. The gap between common and legal meaning runs in two directions. In everyday speech, "mill" as a monetary unit is largely archaic or technical — most non-lawyers encounter it only on property tax bills without knowing what it means. In legal and tax contexts, however, the mill is a live and precise term of art that determines tax liability for millions of property owners. Meanwhile, the physical-mill meaning — the grinding or manufacturing structure — is common in ordinary English but carries specific legal freight in water rights, property conveyances, and nuisance law that the general meaning does not capture. ---
Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES Under the physical-mill meaning, legal sources and courts recognize a cluster of associated terms that carry distinct legal significance: - Mill-dam: The dam or embankment that impounds water to power a mill; subject to mill-dam statutes in many states governing flooding of upstream lands and liability to neighbors. - Mill-privilege: The legal right to use a watercourse for milling purposes; treated as an appurtenance to the mill property and conveyed with it absent contrary language. - Mill-site: The land on which a mill stands, including land reasonably necessary for its operation; in federal mining law, a separate term of art for non-mineral land used in mining or milling operations. Under the monetary meaning: - Millage rate (also mill rate or mill levy): The rate at which property taxes are assessed, expressed as mills per dollar of assessed value. This is the term's dominant modern legal context. ---
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encounter this term in two entirely separate bodies of law, and conflating them wastes time. For taxation research, the mill as a monetary unit is the foundation of property tax rate calculations in virtually every U.S. jurisdiction. Statutes, assessor regulations, and local ordinances routinely express rates in mills without defining the term, assuming familiarity. Researchers working with historical tax records must be alert to the fact that millage rates and assessed-value bases have both changed significantly over time — a mill rate from 1920 is not directly comparable to a modern one without knowing the assessed-value methodology in use. The term "mil" (one thousandth of an inch) appears in entirely different legal contexts (manufacturing tolerances, patent specifications) and should not be confused with "mill" as a tax unit. For property and water law research, the physical-mill meaning dominated legal usage through the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth. Mill-dam statutes were an active area of state legislation and common-law development during the industrial era; many states enacted specific mill acts that altered the common-law rules on flooding, compensation, and nuisance. Researchers working in riparian rights, early industrial property disputes, or nuisance law will encounter extensive mill-related doctrine that has largely disappeared from modern practice but remains relevant to historical title chains, easement interpretation, and the background principles of water law. Anderson's construction — that mill, mill-dam, mill-privilege, mill-site, and similar expressions are construed to include all land, buildings, and machinery necessary or useful to the purpose — is the dominant interpretive rule in conveyancing and should be the default assumption when reading older deeds or grants that convey "a mill" without further specification. ---
Historical Dictionary Support
The historical sources agree on the core of both meanings but differ in emphasis and depth. On the physical-mill meaning, Bouvier is the most candid, acknowledging that "mills are so very different and various, that it is not easy to give a definition of the term" — a useful reminder that courts applied the word to grinding mills, sawmills, paper mills, fulling mills, and a range of other industrial operations, each potentially governed by different statutory regimes. Black's (1st ed.) captures the core succinctly. Anderson adds the most practically useful point: the expansive construction of mill-related terms in property conveyances, which is the rule researchers most need when interpreting instruments. On the monetary meaning, all sources are brief and consistent: one-tenth of a cent, one-thousandth of a dollar. Webster's 1913 matches the legal sources exactly here, which is unusual and reflects the fact that this was a fixed, statutory definition with no interpretive variation. What the historical sources miss almost entirely is the mill's enduring life as a property tax unit. The dictionary entries treat the monetary mill as a simple arithmetic definition, with no discussion of millage rates or property tax assessment — a significant gap given that this is the term's primary modern legal context. Researchers relying solely on historical dictionaries will find the definition but not the institutional framework that makes it matter. The Black's 2nd edition entry in the source material is a scanning artifact reproducing military jurisdiction text rather than a mill entry; it should be disregarded. ---
Jurisdictional Note
The monetary mill as a property tax unit is in use across U.S. jurisdictions, but millage calculation methods, assessment ratios, and the legal caps or limits on mill rates vary significantly by state and locality. Some states cap mill levies by constitutional or statutory provision; others delegate rate-setting authority to local bodies within broad limits. Researchers should not assume that a mill rate figure is self-explanatory without knowing the jurisdiction's assessment methodology. ---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Property Tax Assessment (for millage rates, assessed value calculations, and the mill as tax unit); Water Rights and Riparian Law (for mill-dam statutes, mill-privilege doctrine, and the historical development of mill-related water rights). ---
Related Terms
Millage rate | Mill rate | Mill levy | Assessed value | Ad valorem tax | Mill-dam | Mill-privilege | Mill-site | Riparian rights | Water rights | Appurtenance | Conveyance | Tax assessment | Mil (manufacturing tolerance — distinguish)
MILLmain
Black's Law Dictionary • 1891
A machine or engine for grind- ing, sawing, manufacturing, etc.; also the building containing such machinery. An American money of account, of the value of the tenth part of a cent.
MILLmain
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910
Rep. 759.—Milit jurisdiction. ‘‘There are, under the constitution, three kinds of military jurisdiction,—one to be exercised both in peace and war; another to be exercised in time of forei war without the boundaries of the United States, or in time of rebellion and civil war within states or districts papi wr by rebels treated as belligerents; and a third to be exercised in time of invasion or insurrection within the limits of the United States, or during rebellion within the limits of states maintaining adhesion to the national government, when the public danger requires its exercise. The first of these may be called ‘jurisdiction under military law,’ and is found in acts of congress prescribing rules and articles of war, or otherwise roviding for the government of the national orces; the second may be distinguished as ‘military government,’ superseding, as far as may be deemed expedient, the local law, and exercised by the military commander under the direction of the president, with the ress or implied sanction of congress; while the third may be denominated ‘martial law proper,’ and is called into action by congress, or temporarily, when the action of congress cannot be invited, and in the case of justifying or excusing peril, by the president, in times of insurrection or invasion, or of civil or foreign war, within districts or localities where ordinary law no longer adequately secures public safety and_ private rights.” Per Chase, & J., in Ex parte Milligan, 4-Wall. 141, 18 L. Ed. 281.—Military law. A system of regulations for the government of an army. 1 Kent, Comm. 341, note. That branch of the laws which respects military discipline and the government of persons employed in the military service. De Hart. Mil. Law, 16. State v. nkin, 4 Cold. (Tenn.) 156; Johnson vy. Jones, 44 Jil. 153. 92 Am. Dec. 159; In re Bogart, 3 Fed. Cas. 801; Neall v. U. 8, 118 Fed. 704, 56 C. C. A. 31.—Milit of. fenses. Those offenses which are cognizable by the courts military, as insubordination, sleeping on guard, desertion, etc —Military state. The soldiery of the kingdom of Great Britain. —Milit tenures. The various tenures by knight-service, grand-serjeanty, cornage, etc., are frequently called ‘military tenures,” from the nature of the services which they involved. 1 Steph. Comm. 204.—Military testament. See 1. A machine or engine for grinding, sawing, manufacturing, etc.; also the building containing such machinery. State v. Livermore, 44 N. H. 387; Lamborn v. Bell, 18 Colo. 346, 32 Pac. 989, 20 L. R. A. 241; Home Mut. Ins. Co. v. Roe, 71 Wis. 33, 36 N. W. 594; Halpin v. Insurance Co., 120 N. ¥. 73, 23 N. E. 989; Southwest Missourl Light Co. v. Scheurich, 174 Mo. 235, 73 S. W. 496. -—Mill-holms. Low meadows and other fields in the vicinity of mills, or watery places about mill-dams. Ene. Lond. wilege. The right of a riparian proprietor to erect a mill on his land and to use the power furnished by the stream for the purpose of operating the mill, with due regard to the rights of other owners above and below him on the stream. Gould v. Boston Duck Co., 13 Gray (Mass.) 452; Hutchinson v. Chase, 39 Me. 511, 63 Am. Dec. 645; Moore v. Fletcher, 16 Me. 65, 33 Am. Dec. 633; Whitney v. Wheeler Cotton Mills, 151 Mass. 396, 24 N. E. 774, 7 L. R. A. 613.—Mill site. In general, a parcel of land on or contiguous to a water-course, suitable for the erection and operation of a mill operated by the power furnished by the stream. See Occum Co. v. Sprague Mfg. Co., 35 Conn. 512; Hasbrouct v. Vermilyea, 6 Cow. (N. Y.) 681; Mandeville v. Comstock, 9 Mich. 537. ecifically, in American mining law, a parcel of land constitutin a rtion of the public domain, located an claimed by the owner of a mining claim under the laws of the United States (or purchased by him from the government and patented,) not exceeding five acres in extent, not bucludae any mineral land, not contiguous, to the vein or lode, and occupied and used for the purpose of a mill or for other uses directly connected with the operation of the mine; or a similar parcel of land located and actually used for the purpose of a mill or reduction plant, but not by the owner of an existing mine nor in connection with any particular mining claim. See U. Sent St. § 2337 (U. 8. Comp. St. 1901, p. 2. An American money of account, of the value of the tenth part of a cent.
MILLmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
1. Mill, mill-dam, mill-privile e, mill-site, and like expressions, are construed to include land, buildings, and machinery or other fixtures necessary or useful to attain 1 Martin v. Mott, 12 Wheat. 28 (1827); Luther v. Borden, 7 How. 34 (1849); 8 Mass. 547. 2 Dunne v. People, 94 III. 120, 123 (1879), cases, Scott, Justice. 3 See R. S. Tit. XVI. * Presser v. Illinois, 116 U. S. 267 (1886), Woods, J. See generally 2 Story, Const. §§ 1199-1215, cases; 2 Bancroft. Const. 147-49; 1 Kent, 262-66, cases: Houston v. Moore, 5 Wheat. 12 (1820); 1 Kan. Law J. 261-66 (1885). * On punishing adulteration of, see especially 2. Am. Law Rev. 104 (1888), cases. Mind and memory. At common law, and in statutes of wills, are convertible terms. 4 Sound mind. Mind can only be known by its outward manifestations language and conduct. As these conform to the practice of the majority of mankind, or contrast harshly with it, judgment is formed as to a man's soundness of mind.5 1 See 35 Conn. 158; 41 Ga. 162; 3 Mas. 280; 6 Me. 436; 16 id. 63; 32 id. 383; 39 Mich. 777; 20 Barb. 635; 76 N. Y. 23; 35 Wis. 41; 37 Vt. 622. 2 Head v. Amoskeag Manuf. Co., 113 U. S. 9, 16-19, 23 (1885), Gray, J. 3 See 15 Wall. 589; 8 Del. 119. Re Forman's Will, 54 Barb. 286 (1869). • United States v. Guiteau, 10 F. R. 167 (1882), Cox, J.; ib. 202-3, cases; 2 Harr., Del., 379.
MILLn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A money of account of the United States, having the value of the tenth of a cent, or the thousandth of a dollar.
MILLn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
A machine for grinding or commuting any substance, as grain, by rubbing and crushing it between two hard, rough, or intented surfaces; as, a gristmill, a coffee mill; a bone mill. A machine used for expelling the juice, sap, etc., from vegetable tissues by pressure, or by pressure in combination with a grinding, or cutting process; as, a cider mill; a cane mill. A machine for grinding and polishing; as, a lapidary mill. A common name for various machines which produce a manufactured product, or change the form of a raw material by the continuous repetition of some simple action; as, a sawmill; a stamping mill, etc. A building or collection of buildings with machinery by which the processes of manufacturing are carried on; as, a cotton mill; a powder mill; a rolling mill. A hardened steel roller having a design in relief, used for imprinting a reversed copy of the design in a softer metal, as copper. An excavation in rock, transverse to the workings, from which material for filling is obtained. A passage underground through which ore is shot. A milling cutter. See Illust. under Milling. A pugilistic. [Cant] R. D. Blackmore. Edge mill, Flint mill, etc. See under Edge, Flint, etc. -- Mill bar (Iron Works), a rough bar rolled or drawn directly from a bloom or puddle bar for conversion into merchant iron in the mill. -- Mill cinder, slag from a puddling furnace. -- Mill head, the head of water employed to turn the wheel of a mill. -- Mill pick, a pick for dressing millstones. -- Mill pond, a pond that supplies the water for a mill. -- Mill race, the canal in which water is conveyed to a mill wheel, or the current of water which drives the wheel. -- Mill tail, the water which flows from a mill wheel after turning it, or the channel in which the water flows. -- Mill tooth, a grinder or molar tooth. -- Mill wheel, the water wheel that drives the machinery of a mill. -- Roller mill, a mill in which flour or meal is made by crushing grain between rollers. -- Stamp mill (Mining), a mill in which ore is crushed by stamps. -- To go through the mill, to experience the suffering or discipline necessary to bring one to a certain degree of knowledge or skill, or to a certain mental state.
MILLv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To reduce to fine particles, or to small pieces, in a mill; to grind; to comminute. To shape, finish, or transform by passing through a machine; specifically, to shape or dress, as metal, by means of a rotary cutter. To make a raised border around the edges of, or to cut fine grooves or indentations across the edges of, as of a coin, or a screw head; also, to stamp in a coining press; to coin. To pass through a fulling mill; to full, as cloth. To beat with the fists. [Cant] Thackeray. To roll into bars, as steel. To mill chocolate, to make it frothy, as by churning.
millnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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One thousandth part. | One thousandth of a US dollar, or one tenth of a cent. | One thousandth part. | One thousandth part in millage rates of property tax. | One thousandth part. | Alternative form of mil (“one thousandth of an inch”). | One thousandth part. | Clipping of millimeter.
millnoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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A line of three matching pieces in nine men's morris and related games.
millverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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To move (a card) from a deck to the discard pile. | To destroy (a card) due to having a full hand.

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