English

Alternative forms

• run of the mill
• run-o’-the-mill, run o’ the mill

Adjective

run-of-the-mill ‎(comparative more run-of-the-mill, superlative most run-of-the-mill)

1. (figuratively) Ordinary; not special.

   This isn’t your run-of-the-mill refrigerator; you’ll find the extra features well worth the price.

   • 1971 November 30, Martin Lapidus, Class Notes: 62, Princeton Alumni Weekly, Volume 72, page 26,

     The other had the most run-of-the-mill news which make some of my recent run-of-the-mill columns appear like the raciest escapist fare.

   • 1989, Punch, page 55,

     For a deeper, less familiar philosophy, you have to listen to your more run-of-the-mill dossers, and they don't come more run-of-the-mill than Ratso.

   • 1995, Alain Mérot, French Painting in the Seventeenth Century, page 42,

     In one side of the prestigious commissions, public and private, sacred and profane, which could make the name of an artist, there was a more run of the mill style of painting which already enjoyed a vast clientéle at all levels of society.

   • 1999, David Drew, The Lost Chronicles of the Maya Kings, page 284,

     Who the more run-of-the-mill victims were is unclear, since they are often not named or have no emblem glyphs attached to them.

   • 2001, Gabrielle Lord, Death Delights, 2002, unnumbered page,

     Or even more run-of-the-mill murders which usually turn out to be family or business affairs and where someone's usually heard something or, in the case of the more professional killings, someone wants to do a deal.

Antonyms

• (ordinary): cream of the crop

Translations

See also

• common-or-garden (standard)