milk

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Contents

English [edit]

A glass of cow's milk.

Pronunciation [edit]

Etymology 1 [edit]

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

Cognates

Cognate with West Frisian molke (“milk”), Dutch melk (“milk”), Low German melk (“milk”), German Milch (“milk”), Yiddish מילך (milkh), Danish mælk (“milk”), Norwegian melk, mjølk (“milk”), Swedish mjölk (“milk”), Icelandic mjölk (“milk”), Albanian mjel (“to milk”), Polish mleko (“milk”), Welsh blith, Tocharian A malke, Lithuanian malkas, Latvian malks, and possibly Ancient Greek μέλκιον (melkion).

Noun [edit]

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 a common food for humans as a beverage or used to produce various dairy products such as butter, cheese, and yogurt.
    1. (US standard of identity) The lacteal secretion, practically free from colostrum, obtained by the complete milking of one or more healthy cows, and including the addition of limited amounts of vitamin A, vitamin D, and other carriers or flavoring ingredients identified as safe and suitable.
  2. (uncountable) A white (or whitish) colored liquid obtained from a vegetable source such as soy beans, coconuts, almonds, rice, oats. Also called non-dairy milk.
  3. (countable, informal) An individual serving of milk.
    Table three ordered three milks. (Formally: The guests at table three ordered three glasses of milk.)
  4. (uncountable, slang) semen
Quotations [edit]
  • 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 cheese or yogurt, the price gets pulled up right across the board.
Derived terms [edit]
Derived terms
Related terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
liquid
serving
References [edit]

Etymology 2 [edit]

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

Verb [edit]

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.
  2. (transitive) To express any liquid (from any creature).
  3. (transitive) To talk or write at length about (a particular point).
  4. (transitive) To take advantage of (a situation).
    When the audience began laughing, the comedian milked the joke for more laughs.
Translations [edit]
to express milk from mammal
to express any liquid
to talk or write at length
to take advantage of situation

See also [edit]

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