cash cow

American  

noun

Informal.

1. any business venture, operation, or product that is a dependable source of income or profit.

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cash cow British  

noun

1. a product, acquisition, etc, that produces a steady flow of cash, esp one with a well-known brand name commanding a high market share

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cash cow Idioms  

1. A dependable source of profit, as in The small-appliance division is this company's cash cow. Although this precise term dates only from about 1970, milch cow was used in exactly the same way from 1601.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cash cow

Parent company Alphabet reported 25% revenue growth for the quarter, driven by gains in its cloud division, but revenue from search advertising, long a major cash cow, decelerated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026

TCS has been the group's cash cow, contributing to some 85% of cash flows, but is no longer the pillar of support it once was.

From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2026

His cash cow: Mario Moreno, better known as Cantinflas, the improvisational comic genius sometimes called the “Mexican Charlie Chaplin.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

Google has many advantages over those two, not least of which is a massive cash cow of an advertising business and now a highly profitable cloud computing arm.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 2, 2026

“But this business of his is a cash cow, I’m telling you. Listen. This is how I got it figured ...” What luck!

From "Typical American" by Gish Jen

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Related Words

• moneymaker

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