milk

[ milk ]
See synonyms for: milkmilkedmilking on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. an opaque white or bluish-white liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals, serving for the nourishment of their young.

  2. 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.

  1. a glass, carton, etc., of cow's milk: We ordered two milks for the children.

  2. 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: the milk of the rubber tree;a gentle cleansing milk for your skin.

  3. 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:nut milks;almond milk;oat milk;rice milk.

verb (used with object)
  1. to press or draw milk from the udder or breast of.

  2. to get something from, especially in a way that exploits or defrauds: The swindler milked her of all her savings.

  1. to elicit or draw out a response from someone: 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.

  2. 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)
  1. to yield milk, as a cow: We called the vet when two of our Holsteins suddenly stopped milking.

  2. to milk a cow or other mammal.

Idioms about milk

  1. cry over spilled / spilt milk, to lament what cannot be changed or corrected; express sorrow for past actions or events: Crying over spilled milk will do you no good now.

Origin of milk

1
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”

Other words from milk

  • milk·less, adjective
  • o·ver·milk, verb
  • un·milked, adjective
  • well-milked, adjective

Words Nearby milk

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use milk in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for milk

milk

/ (mɪlk) /


noun
    • a whitish nutritious fluid produced and secreted by the mammary glands of mature female mammals and used for feeding their young until weaned

    • the milk of cows, goats, or other animals used by man as a food or in the production of butter, cheese, etc: Related adjectives: lacteal, lactic

  1. any similar fluid in plants, such as the juice of a coconut

  1. any of various milklike pharmaceutical preparations, such as milk of magnesia

  2. cry over spilt milk to lament something that cannot be altered

verb
  1. to draw milk from the udder of (a cow, goat, or other animal)

  2. (intr) (of cows, goats, or other animals) to yield milk

  1. (tr) to draw off or tap in small quantities: to milk the petty cash

  2. (tr) to extract as much money, help, etc, as possible from: to milk a situation of its news value

  3. (tr) to extract venom, sap, etc, from

Origin of milk

1
Old English milc; compare Old Saxon miluk, Old High German miluh, Old Norse mjolk

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for milk

milk

[ mĭlk ]


  1. A white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals for feeding their young beginning immediately after birth. Milk is an emulsion of proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and sugars, especially lactose, in water. The proteins in milk contain all the essential amino acids.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Other Idioms and Phrases with milk

milk

In addition to the idiom beginning with milk

  • milk of human kindness, the

also see:

  • cry over spilt milk

The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.