(figurative) something that hinders or handicaps

Usage examples of millstone.

And--for thou canst outweep the crocodile-- By thy false tears--those millstones braining men-- 14.

However, when one of the engines failed, or shortly after takeoff with all the flaps and landing gear hanging out, the radome was actually a five-ton millstone.

And--for thou canst outweep the crocodile-- By thy false tears--those millstones braining men-- 14.

The American Civil War Centennial had bred a thriving market for shooting reproductions of nineteenth-century caplock weaponsranging up from Philadelphia derringers to full-size field cannonand his firm had sent him over to try to strike a deal with certain of his contacts in the Italian arms manufactories involving production of these reproduction weapons at a cost less than that charged to them by American arms companies, with their millstones of higher overheads and production costs, and grasping, predatory unions.

We seemed to be the center of a whirling confusion, a crashing, screamimg dizziness, almost as though this great granite millstone of ours, in a final convulsion of cruelty, had come alive to whirl us down the barren slopes of Dartmoor to destruction.

Table-delicacies, paper, wooden shoes, hats, wax and earthenware are manufactured, and there are slate and millstone workings and dye-works.

It was iniquitous destiny beginning afresh: the most crushing toil falling upon a beast of burden, the son hebetated after the father, ground to death under the millstones of wretchedness and injustice.

Look at a millstone, Mr. George, for some change in its expression, and you will find it quite as soon as in the face of Mr.

Who causeth one of these little ones to offend, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.

It seemed as if the house, which I had hitherto thought so beautiful, was like a millstone about my neck.

They also carried millstones and bake ovens, armorers and their forges, and extra materials to keep the bowmen supplied with arrows.

Ben guided the horses and cart into position, backing up little by little as Matteo used the oar to raise the millstone.

The gate was a miniature version of the Thrall's, vertically raised and lowered by countersunk centre-holed millstones.

And all came with nimbi and aureoles and gloriae, bearing palms and harps and swords and olive crowns, in robes whereon were woven the blessed symbols of their efficacies, inkhorns, arrows, loaves, cruses, fetters, axes, trees, bridges, babes in a bathtub, shells, wallets, shears, keys, dragons, lilies, buckshot, beards, hogs, lamps, bellows, beehives, soupladles, stars, snakes, anvils, boxes of vaseline, bells, crutches, forceps, stags' horns, watertight boots, hawks, millstones, eyes on a dish, wax candles, aspergills, unicorns.

Noth would have needed a nutcracker to eat hazelnuts or brazil nuts, and a millstone to process grains like wheat and barley.