gothroughthemill (third-person singular simple presentgoes through the mill,present participlegoing through the mill,simple pastwent through the mill,past participlegone through the mill)
- (idiomatic) Toexperience thesuffering ordiscipline necessary to bring one to a certain degree of knowledge or skill, or to a certain mental state.
- (UK, slang, obsolete) To go throughbankruptcy.
1877,The Accountant, volume 3, page 3:All know the high estimation debtors held the Act 1861, by the number whowent "through the mill" at the close of 1869.
to gain experience or maturity through suffering or discipline
- (bankruptcy):John Camden Hotten (1873),The Slang Dictionary (under "Mill")
