milky
adjUS, UK /ˈmɪlki/
Etymology From Middle English mylky, melky, equivalent to milk + -y. Cognate with Saterland Frisian moalkig (“milky”), West Frisian molkich (“milky”), Dutch melkig (“milky”), German Low German melkig (“milky”), German milchig (“milky”), Danish mælkig (“milky”), Swedish mjölkig (“milky”), Icelandic mjólkugur (“milky”). Doublet of milchig.
7 senses
1
Resembling milk in color, consistency, smell, etc.; consisting of milk.
- his sword, Which was declining on the milky head Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:
- The Pails high-foaming with a milky Flood,1715–1720, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, “(please specify the book of the Iliad or chapter quoted from)”, in The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 267, line 780:
3 more examples
- 1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay concerning the Nature of Aliments, London: J. Tonson, Chapter 3, Prop. 3, p. 51, […] some Plants upon breaking their Vessels yield a milky Juice; others a Yellow of peculiar Tastes and Qualities.
- […] the kind, slightly milky odour of cattle […]1928, Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness, Book One, Chapter Three, 3:
- She wheels her gaze from the wall on to me. The black irises are set off by milky whites as clear as a child’s.1980, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 2, in Waiting for the Barbarians, Penguin, published 1999, pages 37–38:
3
Of a drink Containing (an especially large amount of) milk.
- milky tea; milky cocoa
- Mrs. Anthony, their daily housekeeper, brought in the milky coffee and placed it on the breakfast table.1959, Muriel Spark, chapter 1, in Memento Mori, New York: New Directions, published 2000, page 13:
1 more example
- […] we sat down […] to the old crack crack crack of eggs and the crackle crunch crunch of this black toast, very milky chai standing by in bolshy great morning mugs.1962, Anthony Burgess, chapter 5, in A Clockwork Orange, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, published 1963, →ISBN, page 156:
4
Of grains Containing a whitish liquid, juicy.
- 1800, Robert Bloomfield, The Farmer’s Boy, London: Vernor & Hood et al., “Summer,” p. 30, Shot up from broad rank blades that droop below, The nodding WHEAT-EAR forms a graceful bow, With milky kernels starting full, weigh’d down, Ere yet the sun hath ting’d its head with brown;
- […] the servile Eries were staggering out of the corn fields laden with ripe ears; and the famished soldiers were shouting and cursing at them and tearing the corn from their arms to gnaw the raw and milky grains.1914, Robert W. Chambers, chapter 19, in The Hidden Children, New York: Appleton, page 575:
1 more example
- 1981, Martin Morolong, “The Old-Style Calendar” in Bessie Head, Serowe: Village of the Rain Wind, London: Heinemann, The birds perch on the sorghum heads and try to eat them but the dry seed falls to the ground. The birds can only peck it out of the sorghum head when it is still milky and green.
5
Colloquial Cowardly.
- Has friendship such a faint and milky heart?c. 1605–1608 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Tymon of Athens”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:
- ‘Who said there was going to be any killing?’ The lightning flared up and showed his tight shabby jacket, the bunch of soft hair at the nape. ‘I’ve got a date, that’s all. You be careful what you say, Spicer. You aren’t milky, are you?’ ‘I’m not milky. You got me wrong, Pinkie. I just don’t want another killing […]’1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, Vintage, published 2002, Part , Chapter , pp. 45-46:
1 more example
- The boycott of Florida orange juice, while coming from genuine feelings, is basically a milky-liberal response to an issue that needs united, vocal, public action.1977 April 23, Ken Withers, “No Boycott”, in Gay Community News, page 5:
6
Colloquial Immature, childish.
- Gone is your fighting Youth, whom you have bred From milkie Childhood to the years of bloud!1651, William Davenant, Gondibert, London: John Holden, Book 2, Canto 3, Stanza 48, p. 101:
- There were the everlasting hills around, even as they had grown for countless ages, beneath the still depths of the primeval chalk ocean, in the milky youth of this great English land.1851, Charles Kingsley, chapter 1, in Yeast, London: John W. Parker, page 15:
2 more examples
- “I am no milky, modest, obedient youth, Constance. […]”1882, Walter Besant, chapter 2, in The Revolt of Man, London: Blackwood, page 45:
- He got so thoroughly into the jocund spirit that he didn’t much mind seeing Tanis drooping against the shoulder of the youngest and milkiest of the young men […]1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter XXIX, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, →OCLC, section III, page 337:
7
Obsolete Producing milk, lactating.
- As great a noyse, as when in Cymbrian plaine An heard of Bulles, whom kindly rage doth sting, Doe for the milky mothers want complaine, And fill the fieldes with troublous bellowing,1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- […] ye heare the Lamb by many a bleat Woo’d to come suck the milkie Teat:1648, Robert Herrick, “A Country Life”, in Hesperides, London: John Williams and Francis Eglesfield, page 37:
- Synonyms
- lacteous, lactiferous, fearful, nithing, infantile, puerile, lactifluous, nursing, with milk
- Derived terms
- milkily, milkiness, milky-dashel, milky disease, milky quartz, milky sea, milky spore, milky stork, Milky Way, milky-white, unmilky