TO SEE (or LOOK) THROUGH A MILL-STONE (or BRICK WALL), verb. phr. (common).—To be well-informed; to judge with precision; to be quick of perception.

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  1582.  J. LYLY, Euphues and His England [NARES]. Then, Fidus, since your eies are so sharp that you cannot onely LOOKE THROUGH A MILSTONE, but cleane through the minde, and so cunning that you can levell at the dispositions of women whom you never knew.

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  1767.  RAY, Proverbs [BOHN (1893), 171], s.v.

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  1782.  CENTLIVRE, A Bold Stroke for a Wife, iii. 1. I’m sorry such a well-invented tale should do you no more service. We old fellows can SEE AS FAR INTO A MILLSTONE as them that pick it.

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  TO WEEP MILLSTONES, verb. phr. (old).—Said of a person not likely to cry.

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  1597.  SHAKESPEARE, Richard III., i. 3. Your eyes DROP MILL-STONES when fools’ eyes drop tears. Ibid., i. 6. Cl. Bid Glo’ster think on this, and he will weep. 1 M. Aye, MILL-STONES, as he lesson’d us to weep.

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  1607.  Cæsar and Pompey [NARES].

        —He, good gentleman,
Will weep when he hears how we are used.
  1 Serj.  Yes, MILL-STONES.

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  TO RUN ONE’S HEAD AGAINST A MILLSTONE (MILESTONE, or BRICK WALL), verb. phr. (common).—1.  To resist mulishly; to attempt impossibilities.

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  1837.  DICKENS, Pickwick Papers, p. 129 (ed. 1857.) ‘All them old cats will RUN THEIR HEADS AGIN MILESTONES.’

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  TO RUN A MILESTONE, verb. phr. (old dicing).—See quot. and KNAP.

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  1714.  T. LUCAS, Memoirs of Gamesters, etc., 27. He was not ignorant in Knapping, which is, striking one Die dead, and let the other run a MILSTONE.

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