/ mɪlk; NAmE / noun , verb
■ noun [ U ]
1.
the white liquid produced by cows, goats and some other animals as food for their young and used as a drink by humans :
a pint / litre of milk
a bottle / carton of milk
fresh / dried / powdered milk
Do you take milk in your tea?
milk products (= butter, cheese, etc.)
—see also buttermilk , condensed milk , evaporated milk , malted milk , skimmed milk
2.
the white liquid that is produced by women and female mammals for feeding their babies :
breast milk
3.
the white juice of some plants and trees, especially the coconut
—picture at coconut
—see also soya milk
•
IDIOMS
- the milk of human kindness
—more at cry verb , land noun
■ verb [ vn ]
1.
to take milk from a cow, goat , etc.
2.
milk A (of B) | milk B (from A) ( disapproving ) to obtain as much money, advantage, etc. for yourself as you can from a particular situation, especially in a dishonest way :
She's milked a small fortune from the company over the years.
She's milked the company of a small fortune.
I know he's had a hard time lately, but he's certainly milking it for all it's worth (= using it as an excuse to do things that people would normally object to) .
•
IDIOMS
see dry noun
••
WORD ORIGIN
Old English milc , milcian , of Germanic origin; related to Dutch melk and German Milch , from an Indo-European root shared by Latin mulgere and Greek amelgein to milk.