Milk Definition

mĭlk

milked, milking, milks

noun

A white or yellowish emulsion secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals for suckling their young and usually consisting of fats, proteins, sugars, vitamins, and minerals suspended in water.

Webster's New World

Cow's milk, or, sometimes, that of goats, camels, etc., drunk by humans as a food or used to make butter, cheese, casein products, etc.

Webster's New World

Any liquid like this, as the juice of various plants or fruits (e.g., coconut milk), or any of various emulsions.

Webster's New World

A liquid resembling milk in consistency, such as milkweed sap or milk of magnesia.

American Heritage Medicine

(countable, informal) An individual serving of milk.

Table three ordered three milks. (Formally: The guests at table three ordered three glasses of milk.)

Wiktionary

Synonyms:

verb

To draw or squeeze milk from the mammary glands of (a cow, etc.)

Webster's New World

To extract juice, sap, venom, etc. from.

Webster's New World

To draw out or drain off; extract.

Webster's New World

To press out, drain off, or remove (a liquid).

Milk venom from a snake.

American Heritage

To draw out or extract something from.

Milked the witness for information.

American Heritage

Synonyms:

Antonyms:

Antonyms:
hoard
save

adjective

Giving milk; kept for milking.

Milk cows.

Webster's New World

Synonyms:

idiom

milk it

To take advantage of the help or kindness of others, as when one acts as if one still needs help after recovering from an illness.

American Heritage

cry over spilt milk

to mourn or regret something that cannot be undone

Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Milk

Noun

Singular:

milk

Plural:

milks

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Milk

milk it
cry over spilt milk

Origin of Milk

From Old English melcan, from Proto-Germanic *melkanÄ…, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *hâ‚‚melǵ-, 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 (molozivo), Lithuanian mélžti, Tocharian A mālk-.

From Wiktionary
From Middle English milk, mylk, melk, mulc, from Old English meolc, meoluc (“milk"), from Proto-Germanic *meluks, from Proto-Indo-European *hâ‚‚melǵ-.

From Wiktionary
Middle English from Old English milc melg- in Indo-European roots

From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition