udder
Americannoun
-
udders
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of udder
before 1000; Middle English uddre, Old English ūder; cognate with German Euter, Latin ūber, Greek oûthar, Sanskrit ū́dhar
Explanation
A cow's udder is the part of its body that produces milk. When you milk a cow, you empty its udder by squeezing the milk into a bucket. Moo! To milk any four-legged ruminant, you need to carefully squeeze and pull each teat after cleaning the udder. Large dairy farmers use machines to do this, while some smaller ones do it by hand. Female cattle, goats, deer, and sheep all produce milk and have udders, organs in their bodies that contain mammary glands.
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:
These receptors were found throughout the udder tissue of cattle but were nearly absent in airway tissue.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
In an unassuming building in Stratford, east London, British start-up Better Dairy is making cheese that has never seen an udder, which it argues tastes like the real thing.
From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2025
Even so, experts say bacteria can still contaminate milk — even when procured from a sparkling-clean udder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2024
He bent down underneath one of the docile creatures and poked at a lesion on its udder.
From Salon ● Nov. 14, 2021
“Na, na, rabbit no sveem dis river. Ees peeg, ees deep, go queek. But ees pridge, den udder side plenty place for hide. Ees close to varren, like you say.”
From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams
Rather than primarily infecting the lungs, H5N1 caused severe infections in the udders while leaving the respiratory system largely unaffected.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 23, 2026
The steady pulsing of milking machines mingled with a thumping musical beat as McAfee marched down the rows, pointing to their light pink udders.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
Lab experiments may clarify how a virus that typically causes respiratory disease wound up in cow udders, making it detectable in their milk, and whether other organs are infected.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 1, 2024
While giving a tour of the farm hours before caroling, Vinson described the precautions taken at Churchtown Dairy, including regular testing and treating the cows’ udders with an iodine solution.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
Cattle grazed in thick grass that rippled about their legs, and goats with fat udders wandered with clanking iron bells tied about their necks.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
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.
