Idiom
Run of the mill
Something run-of-the-mill is ordinary and average, with nothing special or unusual about it.
How people use it
It usually describes things, places or events: a run-of-the-mill hotel, a run-of-the-mill week. Before a noun it is hyphenated (a run-of-the-mill job); after a verb it often is not (the food was pretty run of the mill). It is mildly negative, suggesting something is fine but forgettable. It is informal to neutral and common in reviews. People often say "not your run-of-the-mill" to praise something unusual.
Examples
- It looked like a run-of-the-mill diner, but the pie was the best I've ever had.
- Maya wanted more than a run-of-the-mill office job after college.
- The plot was pretty run of the mill, though the acting was strong.
Where it comes from
It comes from mills and factories. The run of the mill was the output as it came straight off the machines, before anyone sorted it into higher and lower grades, so it was average material. A similar phrase, run of the mine, was used for unsorted coal. The figurative sense of plain and ordinary was common in American English by the early 1900s.
Check yourself
1. What does run-of-the-mill mean?
Answer: Ordinary. Run-of-the-mill describes something average and unremarkable.
2. Which sentence uses the idiom correctly?
Answer: It was a run-of-the-mill hotel room: clean, plain and forgettable.. The idiom describes something ordinary, so a rare diamond does not fit, and it is not a verb.
Similar idioms
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