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

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

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

In May, Joe and Elizabeth went to Île-aux-Moines, a coastal island in Brittany, where there was a small American colony, fresh sea air, and a milk cow for the baby.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 10, 2018

They were given a team of mules, a milk cow, chickens, pigs, and all kinds of farm machinery; even a little money.

From "Summer of the Monkeys" by Wilson Rawls