milk
Americannoun
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milks
plural
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an opaque white or bluish-white liquid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals, serving for the nourishment of their young.
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this liquid as secreted by cows, goats, or certain other animals and used by humans for food or as a source of butter, cheeses, yogurt, etc.
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a glass, carton, etc., of cow's milk.
We ordered two milks for the children.
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any liquid resembling the milk of animals, as the liquid within a coconut, the juice or sap of certain plants, or various pharmaceutical or cosmetic preparations: a gentle cleansing milk for your skin.
the milk of the rubber tree;
a gentle cleansing milk for your skin.
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a whitish, potable liquid made of ground nuts, legumes, seeds, or grain blended with water and often a sweetener, used especially as a substitute for dairy milk, its main ingredient as specified: almond milk; rice milk.
nut milks;
almond milk;
oat milk;
rice milk.
verb (used with object)
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milks,
present (3rd person singular)
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milked,
past participle, past
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milking
present participle
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to press or draw milk from the udder or breast of.
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to get something from, especially in a way that exploits or defrauds.
The swindler milked her of all her savings.
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to elicit or draw out a response from someone: The interview was an attempt to milk some sympathy out of what should have been a private tragedy.
He knows how to milk an audience for laughs.
The interview was an attempt to milk some sympathy out of what should have been a private tragedy.
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to extract with effort as if by milking; squeeze.
He always has to milk the last bit of toothpaste from the tube.
She tried to milk a few more billable hours out of the contract.
verb (used without object)
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milks,
present (3rd person singular)
-
milked,
past participle, past
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milking
present participle
-
to yield milk, as a cow.
We called the vet when two of our Holsteins suddenly stopped milking.
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to milk a cow or other mammal.
idioms
noun
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a whitish nutritious fluid produced and secreted by the mammary glands of mature female mammals and used for feeding their young until weaned
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the milk of cows, goats, or other animals used by man as a food or in the production of butter, cheese, etc
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any similar fluid in plants, such as the juice of a coconut
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any of various milklike pharmaceutical preparations, such as milk of magnesia
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to lament something that cannot be altered
verb
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to draw milk from the udder of (a cow, goat, or other animal)
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(intr) (of cows, goats, or other animals) to yield milk
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(tr) to draw off or tap in small quantities
to milk the petty cash
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(tr) to extract as much money, help, etc, as possible from
to milk a situation of its news value
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(tr) to extract venom, sap, etc, from
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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milksimple
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milkssimple
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have milkedperfect
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has milkedperfect
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am milkingprogressive
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are milkingprogressive
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is milkingprogressive
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have been milkingperfect progressive
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has been milkingperfect progressive
Past
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milkedsimple
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had milkedperfect
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was milkingprogressive
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were milkingprogressive
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had been milkingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of milk
First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English meol(o)ic, (Anglian) milc; cognate with German Milch, Old Norse mjōlk, Gothic miluks; akin to Latin mulgēre, Greek amélgein “to milk”
Explanation
Milk is the white liquid that female mammals produce for feeding their babies. Nursing human mothers feed their infants milk, and so do mother goats, cows, dogs, and cats. If you love to drink milk, you're probably a fan of the kind that comes from cows on farms and is sold in grocery stores. However, if you're allergic to this kind of milk, you might drink one of the beverages also known as milk that are made from soaking beans, nuts, rice, or even coconut in water until it becomes rich, white, and milky. To milk is to extract or draw milk from a plant or animal.
Vocabulary lists containing milk
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Symptoms include nasal discharge, redness and swelling of the lips, nose and muzzle, lameness or reluctance to stand, a decrease in milk production and diarrhoea in cattle.
From BBC ● Aug. 17, 2026
The Canadian goods that could face new 50% duties include milk, cream and whey, as well as hockey equipment, liquor and wood products like particle board.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026
The researchers also found that lactose, the sugar in cow's milk that some people have difficulty digesting, was almost entirely absent from all three cheeses once they had matured.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 17, 2026
I’ll either make an iced Americano with a little bit of almond milk or a cold brew.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
I made more of the oat mush, biscuits, and bread soaked in milk, but she wouldn’t eat.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
Don’t have a lot, and please don’t put milks and stuff in it.”
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026
Among the healthier options are whole-grain breads, some soy and almond milks and some plant-based meat alternatives, said Maya Vadiveloo, associate professor of nutrition at the University of Rhode Island.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
Drinks high in sugar can include fizzy sodas, energy drinks, sweetened juices, squashes, sweetened tea and coffee, and flavored milks.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 18, 2026
Plant-based milks, despite existing for millennia, rose to global popularity amid the 21st century due to growing concerns of lactose intolerance and the environmental impacts of dairy.
From Salon ● Aug. 30, 2025
She milks the last bit for all its worth.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
And in a world where sports rivalries are now commoditized, sanitized, and milked for every last ounce of monetizable content, the rarity of Argentina vs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026
At Kurlender's farm, work has continued largely as normal, with dozens of cows lining up to be milked at midday.
From Barron's ● Mar. 18, 2026
"James Bond was more than your average franchise. It had class, prestige, they were indie films made as blockbusters... now? It'll be milked dry. It's truly the end."
From BBC ● Feb. 20, 2025
He said his cows are meticulously cleaned before they are milked.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2024
There was an odd little stand where they leaped to be milked.
From "Miracles on Maple Hill" by Virginia Sorensen
“Sometimes you lose because the cow kicked off the milking machine. Something just happens,” he said.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
Bean to Kohl’s KSS -3.23%decrease; red down pointing triangle are milking the moment.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026
Podcasting can be a great business if you’re good at it, but I’m not sure anyone has ever been this adept at milking shareholder value out of a pair of mics.
From Slate ● Apr. 7, 2026
"My milking herd's normal output dropped from 14,000 litres of milk per day to 9,000 within days of the outbreak because infected cows eat less and struggled to produce milk."
From BBC ● Feb. 19, 2026
But when we slunk in from milking, Dad was at his place at the kitchen table with the weekly newspaper, The Parke County Courier, open before him.
From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
