millstone

[ mil-stohn ]

/ ˈmɪlˌstoʊn /

either of a pair of circular stones between which grain or another substance is ground, as in a mill.

anything that grinds or crushes.

any heavy mental or emotional burden (often used in the phrase a millstone around one's neck).

Origin of millstone

before 1050; Middle English milneston, Old English mylenstān. See mill¹, stone

But the challenge of Europe is to accept a connection to a millstone that has the financial world teetering.

Could Europe’s Economic Crisis Sink Us? |Zachary Karabell |September 13, 2011 |DAILY BEAST
But all of this dubious wealth has become a millstone for the Swiss.

The End of Swiss Discretion |Eric Pape |October 1, 2009 |DAILY BEAST
Worse luck that that millstone still dangles gracefully from my neck!

The Letters of Henry James (volume I) |Henry James
A tame kid was gambolling behind them, and two women were grinding corn, with the millstone between them.

Doctor Luttrell's First Patient |Rosa Nouchette Carey

Just as if a couple of greenbacks could make a blind man see clean through a millstone!

The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 14, No. 85, November, 1864 |Various
At this Philander chuckles, being able to see through a millstone with a hole in it.

Miss Caprice |St. George Rathborne
A porochial 'prentis, who is at present a dead-weight; a millstone, as I may say, round the porochial throat?

Oliver Twist, Illustrated |Charles Dickens

millstone

/ (ˈmɪlˌstəʊn) /

one of a pair of heavy flat disc-shaped stones that are rotated one against the other to grind grain

a heavy burden, such as a responsibility or obligation his debts were a millstone round his neck