milk
Americannoun
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an opaque white or bluish-white liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals, serving for the nourishment of their young.
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this liquid as secreted by cows, goats, or certain other animals and used by humans for food or as a source of butter, cheeses, yogurt, etc.
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a glass, carton, etc., of cow's milk.
We ordered two milks for the children.
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any liquid resembling the milk of animals, as the liquid within a coconut, the juice or sap of certain plants, or various pharmaceutical or cosmetic preparations: a gentle cleansing milk for your skin.
the milk of the rubber tree;
a gentle cleansing milk for your skin.
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a whitish, potable liquid made of ground nuts, legumes, seeds, or grain blended with water and often a sweetener, used especially as a substitute for dairy milk, its main ingredient as specified: almond milk; rice milk.
nut milks;
almond milk;
oat milk;
rice milk.
verb (used with object)
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to press or draw milk from the udder or breast of.
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to get something from, especially in a way that exploits or defrauds.
The swindler milked her of all her savings.
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to elicit or draw out a response from someone: The interview was an attempt to milk some sympathy out of what should have been a private tragedy.
He knows how to milk an audience for laughs.
The interview was an attempt to milk some sympathy out of what should have been a private tragedy.
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to extract with effort as if by milking; squeeze.
He always has to milk the last bit of toothpaste from the tube.
She tried to milk a few more billable hours out of the contract.
verb (used without object)
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to yield milk, as a cow.
We called the vet when two of our Holsteins suddenly stopped milking.
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to milk a cow or other mammal.
idioms
noun
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a whitish nutritious fluid produced and secreted by the mammary glands of mature female mammals and used for feeding their young until weaned
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the milk of cows, goats, or other animals used by man as a food or in the production of butter, cheese, etc
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any similar fluid in plants, such as the juice of a coconut
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any of various milklike pharmaceutical preparations, such as milk of magnesia
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to lament something that cannot be altered
verb
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to draw milk from the udder of (a cow, goat, or other animal)
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(intr) (of cows, goats, or other animals) to yield milk
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(tr) to draw off or tap in small quantities
to milk the petty cash
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(tr) to extract as much money, help, etc, as possible from
to milk a situation of its news value
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(tr) to extract venom, sap, etc, from
Other Word Forms
- milkless adjective
- overmilk verb
- unmilked adjective
- well-milked adjective
Etymology
Origin of milk
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English meol(o)ic, (Anglian) milc; cognate with German Milch, Old Norse mjōlk, Gothic miluks; akin to Latin mulgēre, Greek amélgein “to milk”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
One, whose two-month-old baby was lying in a holdall bag in front of her, said she had grabbed nappies when she had fled but had forgotten milk.
From BBC
Dairy prices fell by 1.2%, largely due to lower cheese prices as milk availability in the European Union improved, even as global milk and butter prices rose.
She says there was a "catalogue of errors" that contributed to her son's death when he was given milk containing cow's milk protein at school, despite his allergy being on record.
From BBC
I returned to the house with the milk for Auntie, and I went to my room to think about what had happened.
From Literature
Horses clopped down the road, she said, bringing milk in huge cans.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
