From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmillstonemill‧stone /ˈmɪlstəʊn $ -stoʊn/ noun [countable] 1 TEMone of the two large circular stones that crush grain into flour in a mill2 → a millstone round/around somebody’s neck
Examples from the Corpus
millstone• This particular heritage may be a millstone around the neck of scientific natural history.• Paradoxically, Anthea now threatened to become a millstone to drag him down.• He could choreograph for the company that was coming to feel like a millstone, and he could tour.• It regulated the output but not the power of a millstone.• In the centre was inset yet another millstone seeded with yellow stone-crop.• These colonies are millstones around our necks, as a noble lord of my acquaintance once said.• Now the speculators have hit hard times and are desperately trying to off-load the cars which have become millstones around their necks.• At the mercy of this resentment, this hateful millstone envy of the Calibans of this world. 