grist for one's/the mill

idiom

US
: something that can be used for a particular purpose
Now that he's a writer, he regards his difficult childhood experiences as grist for the mill.

Examples of grist for one's/the mill in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web There’s more grist for the mill on this thorny matter. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 29 Feb. 2024 My grist for the mill in today’s discussion is how generative AI is putting together the mental health guidance that the AI is showcasing to a person using the AI. Lance Eliot, Forbes, 14 Feb. 2024 Being in love was grist for the mill, as were world war and Anglo-Catholicism: All were instrumental in producing the poetry Eliot was ultimately able to write. Evan Kindley, The New Republic, 30 Nov. 2022 And even the peculiar prejudices of the island became grist for the mill once Booster read Austen’s novel and realized that her story of social stratification would map neatly onto his own experiences. New York Times, 3 June 2022 Consider how your photographs have not disappeared, per se, but been transformed into memories, into a letter to an advice column, into grist for the mill of understanding existence—like a beloved pair of jeans reworked into patches of a quilt. Kim Kierkegaardashian, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2020

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'grist for one's/the mill.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Dictionary Entries Near grist for one's/the mill

Cite this Entry

“Grist for one's/the mill.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/grist%20for%20one%27s%2Fthe%20mill. Accessed 28 Apr. 2024.

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