milk cow

American  

noun

1. a cow that is raised for its milk rather than for beef.

2. Informal. a source of easily gained income; profitable venture.

   The new subsidiary turns out to be a real milk cow.

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Etymology

Origin of milk cow

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

milk cow

The latter film is one of Keaton’s lesser-known but still brilliantly limned stone-faced satires, in this case involving cowpokes and its star’s tender feelings for a milk cow.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 17, 2025

Travolta’s character, Bud, at one point remarks that when he was born, his father sold a milk cow to pay the physician who delivered him.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 27, 2022

He is dressed in jeans, a black polo shirt and, because Wisconsin calls itself “America’s Dairyland,” a white cap with black splotches that are meant to suggest the side of a milk cow.

From Seattle Times ● Oct. 8, 2021

Only the milk cow, Star, which had come into our family as my brother’s 4-H project, was ever named.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2021

Ishmael turned west on Indian Knob Hill Road, and they passed the Masuis’ strawberry fields and then the Thorsens’ milk cow barn and Patsy Larsen’s chicken houses.

From "Snow Falling on Cedars: A Novel" by David Guterson