Idiom
Miller of Dee
Meaning
Someone who lives independently and unattached to others, especially for selfish reasons.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“He lives like a Miller of Dee and cares for no one.”
“You behave like a Miller of Dee when you ignore your friends' problems.”
“A Miller of Dee does not care if the rest of the world suffers.”
“She acts like a Miller of Dee, ignoring her family to focus only on her own comfort.”
“He refuses to help his neighbors with the heavy lifting, preferring to live as a Miller of Dee who owes nothing to anyone.”
“The wealthy businessman became a Miller of Dee, spending his fortune on travel while cutting ties with his old community.”
“After winning the lottery, he moved to a private island to live like a Miller of Dee, far from any social responsibilities.”
“The hermit lived as a true Miller of Dee, content in his isolation and indifferent to the concerns of the village below.”
Examples
simple
“He lives like a Miller of Dee and cares for no one.”
“You behave like a Miller of Dee when you ignore your friends' problems.”
“A Miller of Dee does not care if the rest of the world suffers.”
contextual
“She acts like a Miller of Dee, ignoring her family to focus only on her own comfort.”
“He refuses to help his neighbors with the heavy lifting, preferring to live as a Miller of Dee who owes nothing to anyone.”
“The wealthy businessman became a Miller of Dee, spending his fortune on travel while cutting ties with his old community.”
“After winning the lottery, he moved to a private island to live like a Miller of Dee, far from any social responsibilities.”
complex
“The hermit lived as a true Miller of Dee, content in his isolation and indifferent to the concerns of the village below.”
Origin
From the traditional English folk song Miller of Dee. The eponymous miller expresses a philosophy of solitary self-sufficiency, singing that he cares for nobody, if nobody cares for him. The phrase persists as a reference to this specific state of detached independence.
Key words
Related idioms
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