1837. Barham, Ingoldsby Legends, 2nd Ser., p. 156 (ed. 1851). A
landsman said, ‘I twig the chap—he’s been upon the mill.’
1838. Dickens, Oliver Twist, viii. ‘Was you never on the mill?’
‘What mill?’ inquired Oliver. ‘What mill!—why, the mill—the mill as
takes up so little room that it’ll work inside a stone jug, and
always goes better when the wind’s low with people than when it’s
high, acos then they can’t get workmen.’
1851–61. Mayhew, Lond. Lab. etc., i. 390. A few weeks after I was
grabbed for this, and got a month at the mill.
1853. Wh. Melville, Digby Grand, x. The latter worthy ... gave a
policeman such a licking the other night, that he was within an ace
of getting a month at the mill.
3. (obsolete).—The old Insolvent Debtors’ Court. Hence, to go through
the mill = to be adjudicated bankrupt.