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milk snake

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noun
any of numerous, usually brightly marked king snakes of the subspecies Lampropeltis triangulum (doliata), of North America.

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Also called house snake, milk adder.

Origin of milk snake

An Americanism dating back to 1790–1800; so called because they were said to suck milk from cows
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use milk snake in a sentence

  • And, gliding like a lovely and innocent milk snake out of his grasp, she slipped away.

  • Near them a milk snake had stowed himself away in a crevice, and in the little earthquake which we set up got badly crushed.

    Under the Maples|John Burroughs
  • The Red Milk Snake is prettily colored—red and yellow—and is the type found in the south.

    Pathfinder|Alan Douglas
  • After one has seen a copperhead he is not likely to confuse it with the milk snake or any other.

British Dictionary definitions for milk snake

milk snake

noun
a nonvenomous brown-and-grey North American colubrid snake Lampropeltis doliata, related to the king snakes
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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