milk

n. [ AS. meoluc, meoloc, meolc, milc; akin to OFries. meloc, D. melk, G. milch, OHG. miluh, Icel. mjōlk, Sw. mjölk, Dan. melk, Goth. miluks, G. melken to milk, OHG. melchan, Lith. milszti, L. mulgere, Gr. 'ame`lgein. √107. Cf. Milch, Emulsion, Milt soft roe of fishes. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Physiol.) 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. “White as morne milk.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A kind of juice or sap, usually white in color, found in certain plants; latex. See Latex. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An emulsion made by bruising seeds; as, the milk of almonds, produced by pounding almonds with sugar and water. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster. [ 1913 Webster ]

Condensed milk. See under Condense, v. t. --
Milk crust (Med.), vesicular eczema occurring on the face and scalp of nursing infants. See Eczema. --
Milk fever. (a) (Med.) A fever which accompanies or precedes the first lactation. It is usually transitory. (b) (Vet. Surg.) A form puerperal peritonitis in cattle; also, a variety of meningitis occurring in cows after calving. --
Milk glass, glass having a milky appearance. --
Milk knot (Med.), 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 (Med.), 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. [ Obs. ] Bailey. --
Milk mirror. Same as Escutcheon, 2. --
Milk molar (Anat.), one of the deciduous molar teeth which are shed and replaced by the premolars. --
Milk of lime (Chem.), a watery emulsion of calcium hydrate, produced by macerating quicklime in water. --
Milk parsley (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant (Peucedanum palustre) of Europe and Asia, having a milky juice. --
Milk pea (Bot.), a genus (Galactia) of leguminous and, usually, twining plants. --
Milk sickness (Med.), See milk sickness in the vocabulary. --
Milk snake (Zool.), 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. (Physiol. Chem.) See Lactose, and Sugar of milk (below). --
Milk thistle (Bot.), an esculent European thistle (Silybum marianum), having the veins of its leaves of a milky whiteness. --
Milk thrush. (Med.) See Thrush. --
Milk tooth (Anat.), one of the temporary first set of teeth in young mammals; in man there are twenty. --
Milk tree (Bot.), 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 (Bot.), 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. [ 1913 Webster ]