udder
Americannoun
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
During their trips they met a relative claiming to be the world's oldest man, picked up work in tiny sea ports and drank camel's milk straight from the udder.
From BBC ● Dec. 29, 2024
Even so, experts say bacteria can still contaminate milk — even when procured from a sparkling-clean udder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2024
Just about everything Larson does with a wheel in his hands seems natural to him, but a cow’s udder?
From Seattle Times ● May 21, 2024
“It looked like her udder was going to explode,” Kendra said.
From "Fablehaven" by Brandon Mull
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
A livestock veterinarian at the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their noses dripping and udders slack.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2024
“Cow udders have receptors in common with birds, and they also have receptors in common with humans, where these viruses bind,” Karan said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2024
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
When a cow’s udders were full, she simply had to stroll into the parlor, where she’d be milked by gentle machines automatically.
From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown
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.
