Milk /(mĭlk)/

Milk

n.
  1. A white fluid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals for the nourishment of their young, consisting of minute globules of fat suspended in a solution of casein, albumin, milk sugar, and inorganic salts. (Physiol.)
  2. A kind of juice or sap, usually white in color, found in certain plants; latex. See Latex. (Bot.)
  3. An emulsion made by bruising seeds; as, the milk of almonds, produced by pounding almonds with sugar and water.
  4. The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster. (Zool.)

Phrases & Compounds
Condensed milk
See under Condense, v. t.
Milk crust
vesicular eczema occurring on the face and scalp of nursing infants. See Eczema.
Milk fever
A fever which accompanies or precedes the first lactation
Milk glass
glass having a milky appearance.
Milk knot
a hard lump forming in the breast of a nursing woman, due to obstruction to the flow of milk and congestion of the mammary glands.
Milk leg
a swollen condition of the leg, usually in puerperal women, caused by an inflammation of veins, and characterized by a white appearance occasioned by an accumulation of serum and sometimes of pus in the cellular tissue.
Milk meats
food made from milk, as butter and cheese.
Milk mirror
Same as Escutcheon, 2.
Milk molar
one of the deciduous molar teeth which are shed and replaced by the premolars.
Milk of lime
a watery emulsion of calcium hydrate, produced by macerating quicklime in water.
Milk parsley
an umbelliferous plant (Peucedanum palustre) of Europe and Asia, having a milky juice.
Milk pea
a genus (Galactia) of leguminous and, usually, twining plants.
Milk sickness
See milk sickness in the vocabulary.
Milk snake
a harmless American snake (Ophibolus triangulus, or Ophibolus eximius). It is variously marked with white, gray, and red. Called also milk adder, chicken snake, house snake, etc.
Milk sugar
See Lactose, and Sugar of milk (below).
Milk thistle
an esculent European thistle (Silybum marianum), having the veins of its leaves of a milky whiteness.
Milk thrush
See Thrush.
Milk tooth
one of the temporary first set of teeth in young mammals; in man there are twenty.
Milk tree
a tree yielding a milky juice, as the cow tree of South America (Brosimum Galactodendron), and the Euphorbia balsamifera of the Canaries, the milk of both of which is wholesome food.
Milk vessel
a special cell in the inner bark of a plant, or a series of cells, in which the milky juice is contained. See Latex.
Rock milk
See Agaric mineral, under Agaric.
Sugar of milk
The sugar characteristic of milk; a hard white crystalline slightly sweet substance obtained by evaporation of the whey of milk. It is used in pellets and powder as a vehicle for homeopathic medicines, and as an article of diet. See Lactose.

Milk

v. t.

imp. & p. p. Milked; p. pr. & vb. n. Milking

  1. To draw or press milk from the breasts or udder of, by the hand or mouth; to withdraw the milk of.
    I have given suck, and know How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me.
  2. To draw from the breasts or udder; to extract, as milk; as, to milk wholesome milk from healthy cows.
  3. To draw anything from, as if by milking; to compel to yield profit or advantage; to plunder.
    They [the lawyers] milk an unfortunate estate as regularly as a dairyman does his stock.
    — London Spectator.

Phrases & Compounds
To milk the street
to squeeze the smaller operators in stocks and extract a profit from them, by alternately raising and depressing prices within a short range; -- said of the large dealers.
To milk a telegram
to use for one's own advantage the contents of a telegram belonging to another person.

Milk

v. i.
  1. To draw or to yield milk.
  2. To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation; -- said of a storage battery. (Elec.)