milk definition

English milk definition

Pronunciation

• enPR: mĭlk, IPA^(key): /mɪlk/

  • Audio (UK)

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• (Canada, Inland Northern American, for some speakers) IPA^(key): [mɛlk]^[1]
• Rhymes: -ɪlk, -ɛlk

Etymology 1

From Middle English milk, mylk, melk, mulc, from Old English meolc, meoluc (“milk”), from Proto-West Germanic *meluk, from Proto-Germanic *meluks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-.

Noun

milk (countable and uncountable, plural milks)

1. (uncountable) A white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals to nourish their young. From certain animals, especially cows, it is also called dairy milk and is a common food for humans as a beverage or used to produce various dairy products such as butter, cheese, and yogurt.

   Skyr is a product made of curdled milk.

   Synonyms: dairy milk, (often implied) cowmilk

   • 2007 September 24, Chris Horseman (interviewee), Emily Harris (reporter), “Global Dairy Demand Drives Up Prices”, Morning Edition, National Public Radio

     […] there's going to be that much less milk available to cover any other uses. Which means whether it's liquid milk or whether it's [milk that's been turned into] cheese or yogurt, the price gets pulled up right across the board.

   • 2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, page 75:

     In the West it's' fairly normal to drink milk in various forms into adulthood.

3. (uncountable, by extension) A white (or whitish) liquid obtained from a vegetable source such as almonds, coconuts, oats, rice, and/or soy beans.

   Synonyms: m*lk, mylk, non-dairy milk, plant milk

   • 2018 September 16, Alexandra Spring, “'Milk' mania: why most alternatives aren't great – but camel milk just might be”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     Where it does fall down, however, is its nutritional value. While oats are largely a healthy grain to include in your diet, the milk is highly diluted with water, giving it little nutritional value.

   • 2020 January 29, Annette McGivney, “Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink?”, in The Guardian‎^[3]:

     For environmentally minded consumers, the news is hard to swallow: almond milk is not healthy for the planet and the popular milk substitute is especially hard on bees.

4. (countable, informal) An individual serving of milk.

   Table three ordered three milks.

5. (countable or invariant) An individual portion of milk, such as found in a creamer, for tea and coffee.

   I take my tea with two milks and two sugars.

   I take my tea with two milk and two sugar.

   • 2014, Don Eggspuehler, Teachings From Pop, Author House (→ISBN), page 459:

     She just sat there drinking cup after cup of strong coffee, with two milks and two sugars.

   • 2015, Carolyn Arnold, City of Gold: (Mathew Connor Adventure Series Book 1), Hibbert & Stiles Publishing Inc. (→ISBN)

     Five minutes later, he returned with Justin's large coffee with two milk and two sweeteners and a black coffee for himself.

   • 2019, Maggie Blackbird, Redeemed: The Matawapit Family Series, #1, eXtasy Books (→ISBN), page 349:

     Mrs. Dale huffed up to the counter and fired her battle-axe stare at the attendant. “One medium tea. ... Two double-doubles, and one with two milk and two sweeteners.”

   • 2020, John Mitton, Tedmund and the Murdered Heiress, Page Publishing, Inc (→ISBN)

     She placed on her desk a brown paper bag; it held her breakfast, cream cheese on a toasted bagel and coffee with two milks and one sugar.

6. The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster.
7. (uncountable, slang) Semen.

Usage notes

Following a 2017 European Union (EU) court ruling, the term milk cannot legally be used to market purely plant-based products (sense 2) in the EU.^[2]

Derived terms

Related terms

• milch

Descendants

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English milken, from Old English melcan, from Proto-Germanic *melkaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-, the same root as the noun. Compare Dutch and German melken, Danish malke, Norwegian mjølke, also Latin mulgeō (“I milk”), Ancient Greek ἀμέλγω (amélgō, “I milk”), Albanian mjel (“to milk”), Russian молоко́ (molokó), Lithuanian mélžti, Tocharian A mālk-.

Verb

milk (third-person singular simple present milks, present participle milking, simple past and past participle milked)

1. (transitive) To express milk from (a mammal, especially a cow).

   The farmer milked his cows.

   • c. 1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene vii], page 135, column 2:

     I haue giuen Sucke, and know / How tender 'tis to loue the Babe that milkes me […]

2. (transitive, intransitive) To draw (milk) from the breasts or udder.

   to milk wholesome milk from healthy cows

3. (transitive) To express a liquid from a creature.

   The Australian government has a team that regularly milks various snakes for venom to use creating serums and antivenoms.

4. (transitive, figuratively) To make excessive use of (a particular point in speech or writing, a source of funds, etc.); to exploit; to take advantage of (something).

   When the audience began laughing, the comedian milked the joke for more laughs.

   • July 21, 1877, "The Block in the Courts" in The Spectator

     They [the lawyers] milk an unfortunate estate as regularly as a dairyman does his stock.

   • 2018 August 27, Daniel Taylor, “Lucas Moura double for Spurs deepens gloom at Manchester United”, in The Guardian (London)‎^[4]:

     If nothing else, José Mourinho can be grateful there was no mutiny. He still heard his name being sung and at the final whistle Old Trafford was not too unkind on the manager or his players. He milked it, too, marching over to the Stretford End to thank them for their generosity.

5. (of an electrical storage battery) To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation.
6. (transitive, intransitive, sex slang) To single-mindedly masturbate a male to ejaculation, especially for the amusement or satisfaction of the masturbator rather than the person masturbated.

   Controlled milking can actually establish and consolidate a mistress’s dominance over her sub rather than diminish it.

   Synonym: masturbate

   • 2015, Joyce Snyder, Mistress Pussycat: Adventures with Submissive Men in the World of Femdom, Headpress, →ISBN:

     “No, no, no! When a male is in chas-ti-ty,” (Clive always drew out this word and also slavery, emphasizing every syllable to give it extra importance) “he should receive regular milking to maintain good hygiene.” (Yet more kinky behavior cloaked as healthy living.) “Milking helps flush out the toxins which accumulate within the prostate gland of a chaste male.”

Derived terms

Translations

See also

References

• FDA standard of identity for "milk".

Anagrams

• Klim

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Scanian milk definition

Alternative forms

• mjælk

Etymology

From Old Norse mjǫlk, from Proto-Germanic *meluks.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [méɪlk]

Noun

milk m

1. milk