Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Usage examples of "mill-wheel".
Here, to this middle-of-nowhere Somerset village where the mill-wheel creaked with age above the millrace and the apple scent of cider welled up from the cellars down below.
Imagine the mischief a temporary owner, steeped in debt, needy and urged on by the maturity of his engagements, can and must do to an estate held under a precarious title and of suspicious acquirement, which he has no idea of keeping, and from which, meanwhile, he derives every possible benefit:[17] not only does he put no spokes in the mill-wheel, no stones in the dyke, no tiles on the roof, but he buys no manure, exhausts the soil, devastates the forest, alienates the fields, and dismembers the entire farm, damaging the ground and the stock of tools and injuring the dwelling by selling its mirrors, lead and iron, and oftentimes the window-shutters and doors.
But I was trapped between the giant grinding mill-wheel of alternativity.
Far below, a heartbroken sobbing would start up like a mill-wheel, or weird, high singing would weave resonating glass rods through the forest, or eldritch knockings and tappings would echo through the lofty vaults, emanating from down among the roots.