millstone around one's neck

A heavy burden, as in Julie finds Grandma, who is crabby, a millstone around her neck. The literal hanging of a millstone about the neck is mentioned as a punishment in the New Testament (Matthew 18:6), causing the miscreant to be drowned. Its present figurative use was first recorded in a history of the Quakers (c. 1720).

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Honza	-	Czech
Tatjana	TAHT-yah-nah (Finnish)	Serbian, Croatian, Slovene, Macedonian, German, Latvian, Lithuanian, Finnish
Elias	ə-LEE-əsh (Portuguese), e-LEE-ahs (German), E-lee-ahs (Finnish), i-LIE-əs (English), ee-LIE-əs (English)	Portuguese, German, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, English, Greek, Biblical Latin, Biblical Gr
Burchard	BOOR-kahrt (German)	German, Ancient Germanic
Ashworth	['æʃwɜ:θ]
Sanne	SAHN-nə (Dutch)	Dutch, Danish