milky
English
Etymology
From Middle English mylky, melky, equivalent to milk + -y. Cognate with German milchig (“milky”), Swedish mjölkig (“milky”). Doublet of milchig.
Pronunciation
- (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈmɪlki/
Audio (Berkshire, England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪlki
Adjective
milky (comparative milkier, superlative milkiest)
- Resembling milk in color, consistency, smell, etc.; consisting of milk.
- 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 606515358, [Act II, scene ii]:
- his sword,
Which was declining on the milky head
Of reverend Priam, seem'd i' the air to stick:
- 1715–1720, Homer; [Alexander] Pope, transl., “(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 670734254, line 780, page 267:
- The Pails high-foaming with a milky Flood,
- 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.
- 1928, Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness, Book One, Chapter Three, 3,
- […] the kind, slightly milky odour of cattle […]
- 1980, J. M. Coetzee, Waiting for the Barbarians, Penguin, 1999, Chapter 2, pp. 37-38,
- 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.
-
- (color science, informal) Of the black in an image, appearing as dark gray rather than black.
- (of a drink) Containing (an especially large amount of) milk.
- milky tea; milky cocoa
- 1959, Muriel Spark, Memento Mori, New York: New Directions, 2000, Chapter One, p. 13,
- Mrs. Anthony, their daily housekeeper, brought in the milky coffee and placed it on the breakfast table.
- 1963 [1962], Anthony Burgess, chapter 5, in A Clockwork Orange, New York: W. W. Norton, →ISBN, page 156:
- […] 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.
- (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;
- 1914, Robert W. Chambers, The Hidden Children, New York: Appleton, Chapter 19, p. 575,
- […] 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.
- 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.
- 1800, Robert Bloomfield, The Farmer’s Boy, London: Vernor & Hood et al., “Summer,” p. 30,
- (colloquial) Cowardly.
- c. 1605–1608, 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 606515358, [Act III, scene i]:
- Has friendship such a faint and milky heart?
- 1938, Graham Greene, Brighton Rock, Vintage, 2002, Part , Chapter , pp. 45-46,
- ‘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 […] ’
-
- (colloquial) Immature, childish.
- 1651, William Davenant, Gondibert, London: John Holden, Book 2, Canto 3, Stanza 48, p. 101,
- Gone is your fighting Youth, whom you have bred
- From milkie Childhood to the years of bloud!
- 1851, Charles Kingsley, Yeast, London: John W. Parker, Chapter 1, p. 15,
- 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.
- 1882, Walter Besant, The Revolt of Man, London: Blackwood, Chapter 2, p. 45,
- “I am no milky, modest, obedient youth, Constance. […] ”
- 1922, Sinclair Lewis, chapter 29, in Babbitt, New York, N.Y.: Harcourt, Brace and Company, OCLC 844076792, section III, page 337:
- 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 […]
- 1651, William Davenant, Gondibert, London: John Holden, Book 2, Canto 3, Stanza 48, p. 101,
- (obsolete) Producing milk, lactating.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, OCLC 960102938:
- 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,
- 1648, Robert Herrick, “A Country Life” in Hesperides, London: John Williams and Francis Eglesfield, p. 37,
- […] ye heare the Lamb by many a bleat
- Woo’d to come suck the milkie Teat:
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Synonyms
- (resembling milk): lacteous; see also Thesaurus:lacteous
- (containing milk): lactiferous
- (cowardly): fearful, nithing; see also Thesaurus:cowardly
- (immature): infantile, puerile; see also Thesaurus:childish
- (producing milk): lactifluous, nursing, with milk
Derived terms
- milkily
- milkiness
- milky disease
- milky quartz
- milky spore
- milky stork
- Milky Way
Translations
resembling milk in color or consistency
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