# milk
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: mĭlk, IPA: /mɪlk/
** Audio (UK):(file)
** Audio (US):(file)
* (Canada, Inland Northern American, for some speakers) IPA: [mɛlk]
* Rhymes: -ɪlk, -ɛlk

### Etymology 1

From Middle English milk, mylk, melk, mulc, from Old English meolc, meoluc (“milk”), from Proto-West Germanic *meluk, from Proto-Germanic *meluks, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-.
Cognate with West Frisian molke, Dutch melk, Dutch Low Saxon melk, German Milch, German Low German Melk, Yiddish מילך (milkh), Danish mælk, Norwegian Bokmål mjølk, melk, Norwegian Nynorsk mjølk, Swedish mjölk, Icelandic mjólk, Faroese mjólk, Albanian mjel (“to milk”), Polish mleko, Russian молоко́ (molokó), Welsh blith, Tocharian A malke, Lithuanian malkas, Latvian malks, and possibly Ancient Greek μέλκιον (mélkion).

#### Noun

milk (countable and uncountable, plural milks)
* (uncountable) A white liquid produced by the mammary glands of female mammals to nourish their young. From certain animals, especially cows, it is also called dairy milk and is a common food for humans as a beverage or used to produce various dairy products such as butter, cheese, and yogurt.
    Synonyms: dairy milk, (often implied) cowmilk
    Skyr is a product made of curdled milk.
** 2007 September 24, Chris Horseman (interviewee), Emily Harris (reporter), “Global Dairy Demand Drives Up Prices”, Morning Edition, National Public Radio
    […] there's going to be that much less milk available to cover any other uses. Which means whether it's liquid milk or whether it's [milk that's been turned into] cheese or yogurt, the price gets pulled up right across the board.
** 2017, Adam Rutherford, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived, The Experiment, →ISBN, page 75:In the West it's' fairly normal to drink milk in various forms into adulthood.
* (uncountable, by extension) A white (or whitish) liquid obtained from a vegetable source such as almonds, coconuts, oats, rice, or soy beans.
    Synonyms: m*lk, mylk, non-dairy milk, plant milk
    Hyponyms: almond milk, coconut milk, hazelnut milk, hemp milk, oat milk, peanut milk, rice milk, soy milk
** 2018 September 16, Alexandra Spring, “'Milk' mania: why most alternatives aren't great – but camel milk just might be”, in The Guardian‎:Where it does fall down, however, is its nutritional value. While oats are largely a healthy grain to include in your diet, the milk is highly diluted with water, giving it little nutritional value.
** 2020 January 29, Annette McGivney, “Almonds are out. Dairy is a disaster. So what milk should we drink?”, in The Guardian‎:For environmentally minded consumers, the news is hard to swallow: almond milk is not healthy for the planet and the popular milk substitute is especially hard on bees.
* (countable, informal) An individual serving of milk.
    Table three ordered three milks.
* (countable or invariant) An individual portion of milk, such as found in a creamer, for tea and coffee.
    I take my tea with two milks and two sugars.
    I take my tea with two milk and two sugar.
** 2014, Don Eggspuehler, Teachings From Pop, Author House, →ISBN, page 459:She just sat there drinking cup after cup of strong coffee, with two milks and two sugars.
** 2015, Carolyn Arnold, City of Gold: (Mathew Connor Adventure Series Book 1), Hibbert & Stiles Publishing Inc., →ISBN:Five minutes later, he returned with Justin's large coffee with two milk and two sweeteners and a black coffee for himself.
** 2019, Maggie Blackbird, Redeemed: The Matawapit Family Series, #1, eXtasy Books, →ISBN, page 349:Mrs. Dale huffed up to the counter and fired her battle-axe stare at the attendant. “One medium tea. ... Two double-doubles, and one with two milk and two sweeteners.”
** 2020, John Mitton, Tedmund and the Murdered Heiress, Page Publishing, Inc, →ISBN:She placed on her desk a brown paper bag; it held her breakfast, cream cheese on a toasted bagel and coffee with two milks and one sugar.
* The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster.
* (uncountable, vulgar, slang) Semen.

##### Usage notes

* Following a 2017 European Union (EU) court ruling, the term milk cannot legally be used to market purely plant-based products (sense 2) in the EU.

##### Derived terms

* acid of milk
* African milk barrel
* African milk tree
* age like milk
* almond milk
* almond-milk
* almondmilk
* Amazon milk frog
* antimilk
* Aval Milk
* baby milk
* boob milk
* bread and milk
* breakfast milk
* breast milk
* buttermilk
* cashew milk
* cat milk
* Channel Island milk
* chocolate milk
* choco milk
* coconut milk
* coffee milk
* condensed milk
* cowmilk, cow milk, cow's milk
* crop milk
* cry over spilt milk, cry over spilled milk
* dick milk
* don't cry over spilled milk
* don't teach your grandmother how to milk ducks
* dried milk
* dysphoric milk ejection reflex
* evaporated milk
* filled milk
* first milk
* flavored milk, flavoured milk
* flax milk
* fore-milk
* foremilk
* full cream milk
* glacial milk
* glacier milk
* goatmilk, goat milk, goat's milk
* goat's-milk cheese
* goat's milk cheese
* golden milk
* gold-top milk
* green milk
* hazelnut milk
* hemp milk
* hindmilk
* hold my milk
* homogenized milk, homo milk
* horsemilk, horse milk
* hot-milk cake
* hot milk cake
* human milk
* ice milk, iced milk
* land of milk and honey
* lapper-milk
* low-fat milk
* malted milk
* man-milk
* man milk
* mare's milk
* mild as milk
* milk abscess
* milk acid
* milkaholic, milkoholic
* milk albuminate
* milk-alkali syndrome
* milk-and-water
* milk-and-wateriness
* milk-and-watery
* milkbag
* milk bar
* milk-bar cowboy
* milk before meat
* milkborne
* milk bottle
* milkbox
* milkboy
* milk bread
* milk brother, milk-brother
* milkbush
* milk camel
* milk can
* milk-cap, milk cap, milkcap
* milk caps
* milk card
* milk chocolate
* milk churn
* milk cow
* milkcrate
* milk crate
* milk crust
* milk dentition
* milk duct
* milken
* milkery
* milk factory
* milkfat, milk fat
* milkfed, milk-fed
* milk fever
* milk fiber
* milk fibre
* milkfish
* milk float
* milk-free
* milk fruit
* milkful
* milk glass
* milk gravy
* milkhouse, milk-house, milk house
* milk ice
* milkie
* milkiness
* milkish
* milk jug
* milk knot
* milk leg
* milkless
* milklike
* milk line
* milk-livered
* milkmaid
* milk-maid
* milkmaiden
* milk maker
* milk-maker
* milkman
* milk mirror
* milk monitor
* milk moon
* milk mother, milk-mother
* milk moustache
* milk mustache
* milko
* milk of amnesia
* milk of human kindness
* milk of lime
* milk of magnesia
* milk of roses
* Milkomeda, Milkdromeda
* milkpan
* milk pan
* milk parsley
* milk pea
* milkperson
* milk powder
* milkpox
* milk product
* milk pudding
* milk punch
* milk replacer
* milk roll
* milk round
* milk run
* milk saucepan
* milk scall
* milkshake, milk-shake, milk shake
* milkshed
* milk sibling, milk-sibling
* milk sickness
* milk sister, milk-sister
* milk snake, milksnake
* milksop
* milksoppery
* milksoppish
* milksoppy
* milk spot
* milkstache
* milkstain
* milkstained
* milkstone
* milk stout
* milk substitute
* milk sugar
* milk sweet
* milk tea
* milk the clock
* milk thistle
* milk toast
* milktoast
* milk token
* milk tongue
* milk tooth, milk-tooth
* milk train
* milktree
* milk truck
* milk tusk
* milkvetch, milk-vetch, milk vetch
* milk voucher
* milk-warm
* milkweed
* milk-white, milkwhite
* milkwoman
* milkwood
* milk wool
* milkwort
* milky
* Milky Way
* moonmilk
* moon milk
* moose milk
* mother's milk
* mountain milk
* mylk
* neonatal milk
* nonmilk
* nut milk
* oat milk
* one-percent milk, 1% milk
* overmilk
* pale as milk
* peanut milk
* pigeon milk, pigeon's milk
* pilk
* plant milk
* powdered milk
* premilk
* producer milk
* raw milk
* reduced-fat milk
* rice milk
* saffron milk cap
* semi-skimmed milk
* share-milk
* sharemilk
* share milk
* sheep milk
* skimmed milk, skim milk
* soured milk
* sour milk
* soymilk
* soy milk
* soy milk maker
* spilt milk
* sugar of milk
* sweet milk
* swill milk
* that accounts for the milk in the coconut
* there's no point crying over spilt milk
* there's no use crying over spilt milk
* three-milk cake
* tiger's milk
* two-percent milk, 2% milk
* ugly milk-cap
* UHT milk
* undermilk
* unmilky
* whole milk
* why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free
* witches' milk
* witch's milk
* wolf's milk, wolf's-milk

##### Related terms

* milch

##### Descendants

* Solombala English: милекъ (milek)
* → Chuukese: minik
* ⇒ Gamilaraay: milambaraay
* → Gilbertese: miriki
* → Japanese: ミルク (miruku)
* → Korean: 밀크 (milkeu)
* → Lingala: míliki
* → Maori: miraka
* → Marshallese: milik
* → Volapük: milig
* → Yoruba: mílíìkì

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

From Middle English milken, from Old English melcan, from Proto-Germanic *melkaną, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₂melǵ-, the same root as the noun. Compare Dutch and German melken, Danish malke, Norwegian mjølke, also Latin mulgeō (“I milk”), Ancient Greek ἀμέλγω (amélgō, “I milk”), Albanian mjel (“to milk”), Russian молоко́ (molokó), Lithuanian mélžti, Tocharian A mālk-.

#### Verb

milk (third-person singular simple present milks, present participle milking, simple past and past participle milked)
* (transitive) To express milk from (a mammal, especially a cow).
    The farmer milked his cows.
** c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene vii], page 135, column 2:I haue giuen Sucke, and know / How tender 'tis to loue the Babe that milkes me […]
* (transitive, intransitive) To draw (milk) from the breasts or udder.
    to milk wholesome milk from healthy cows
* (intransitive, transitive, rare) To secrete (milk) from the breasts or udder.
** 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 2, page 84:The black cow milking white milk, black hen on the nest laying white eggs.
* (transitive) To express a liquid from a creature.
    The Australian government has a team that regularly milks various snakes for venom to use creating serums and antivenoms.
** 1966, Bruce Brown, director, The Endless Summer:He captures animals for zoos around the world... and milks cobra snakes for their venom.
* (transitive, figurative) To make excessive use of (a particular point in speech or writing, a source of funds, etc.); to exploit; to take advantage of (something).
    When the audience began laughing, the comedian milked the joke for more laughs.
** July 21, 1877, "The Block in the Courts" in The Spectator
    They [the lawyers] milk an unfortunate estate as regularly as a dairyman does his stock.
** 2018 August 27, Daniel Taylor, “Lucas Moura double for Spurs deepens gloom at Manchester United”, in The Guardian (London)‎:If nothing else, José Mourinho can be grateful there was no mutiny. He still heard his name being sung and at the final whistle Old Trafford was not too unkind on the manager or his players. He milked it, too, marching over to the Stretford End to thank them for their generosity.
* (of an electrical storage battery) To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation.
* (transitive, BDSM, vulgar) To masturbate a male to ejaculation, especially for the amusement or satisfaction of the masturbator rather than the person masturbated.
    Synonym: masturbate
    Controlled milking can actually establish and consolidate a mistress’s dominance over her sub rather than diminish it.
** 2015, Joyce Snyder, Mistress Pussycat: Adventures with Submissive Men in the World of Femdom, Headpress, →ISBN:“No, no, no! When a male is in chas-ti-ty,” (Clive always drew out this word and also slavery, emphasizing every syllable to give it extra importance) “he should receive regular milking to maintain good hygiene.” (Yet more kinky behavior cloaked as healthy living.) “Milking helps flush out the toxins which accumulate within the prostate gland of a chaste male.”

##### Derived terms

* milkable
* milker
* milking
* milking machine
* milking table
* milk the clock
* remilk
* unmilkable
* unmilked

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### See also

* dairy
* dairy product
* MILC
* Milk

### References

* ↑ Arden R. Thorum, Phonetics: A Contemporary Approach (2013), page 107
* ↑ “Judgment of the Court (Seventh Chamber) of 14 June 2017”, in EUR-Lex‎, 2017 June 14: “The term ‘milk’ shall mean exclusively the normal mammary secretion obtained from one or more milkings without either addition thereto or extraction therefrom.”
* FDA standard of identity for "milk".

### Anagrams

* Klim

## Limburgish
### Noun

milk f (East Limburgish, Southeast Limburgish)
* Veldeke spelling of Mele̩k

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* milke, milc
* melke, melc (chiefly Kent & Southern West)
* mulk, mulc (chiefly Southern & Southern West)

### Etymology

From Old English milc, meolc, from Proto-West Germanic *meluk, from Proto-Germanic *meluks.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /milk/

### Noun

milk (plural milks)
* milk

#### Descendants

* English: milk
* Scots: milk, melk, mylk
* Yola: mulk

#### References

* “milk, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

## Scanian
### Alternative forms

* mjælk

### Etymology

From Old Norse mjǫlk, from Proto-Germanic *meluks.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [méɪlk]

### Noun

milk m
* milk