Idiom
water to one's mill
Meaning
That which energizes or stimulates one.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“This new project is water to my mill.”
“The professor loves difficult questions, so the student's challenging inquiry was truly water to his mill.”
“For the ambitious researcher, the discovery of the rare manuscript served as water to her mill, providing the exact evidence needed to complete her thesis.”
Examples
simple
“This new project is water to my mill.”
contextual
“The professor loves difficult questions, so the student's challenging inquiry was truly water to his mill.”
complex
“For the ambitious researcher, the discovery of the rare manuscript served as water to her mill, providing the exact evidence needed to complete her thesis.”
Origin
From the image of water directed into a channel to power a watermill. The idiom identifies an occurrence that provides an advantage or serves a particular interest, with similar constructions appearing across numerous European languages.
Key words
Related idioms
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