ENGLISH
REFERENCE

go through the mill

idiom
Meaning

To experience the suffering or discipline necessary to bring one to a certain degree of knowledge or skill, or to a certain mental state.


Examples
SIMPLE

New recruits really go through the mill during their first month.

CONTEXTUAL

After going through the mill in medical school, she finally felt ready to handle any emergency in the hospital.

COMPLEX

Having gone through the mill of intense professional training, the young musician possessed a technical mastery that far surpassed his peers.

Anchors to
Related idioms8entries
  1. 01

    all dressed up and nowhere to go

    Elaborately attired or otherwise fully prepared for an anticipated situation or activity which, nevertheless, fails to occur.

  2. 02

    all systems go

    Everything is ready.

  3. 03

    as you go

    While one is doing (something); as one progresses.

  4. 04

    boldly go where no man has gone before

    To break new ground.

  5. 05

    come and go

    To repeatedly appear and disappear; to be transient.

  6. 06

    don't go there

    Do not broach that topic.

  7. 07

    easy come, easy go

    Easily won and easily lost (usually said when resigned to a loss; something that comes in the same way, goes in the same way)

  8. 08

    enough to go around

    There is an adequate amount or supply of something for all of the people present or involved.

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