cash cow

noun

Informal.

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

cash cow

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

Idioms and Phrases

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.

Example Sentences

Hollywood comedies were a cash cow for years, but they’ve run up against a number of hurdles.

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A decentralized, low-cost, flexible cottage industry will likely be transformed into a centralized, high-cost, inflexible cash cow for the merchants of death.

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“It is also a cash cow and it has an identity for a network, which is truly important.”

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The biggest cash cow among foreign students has been in taught post-graduate degrees.

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"Welsh government is discouraging the whole industry," he claimed, accusing ministers of seeing it as a "cash cow to be milked".

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Related Words

• moneymaker