milk can

plural milk cans

1. idiomaticSynonym of milk churn.

   1 more example

   Electrification helped farmers, but in addition, the farm routine was greatly simplified because milk itself became the desired commodity instead of cream and butter. Milk trucks traveled to neighborhoods like North Pomfret to pick up cans of milk and haul them to the creamery for processing. The empty cans were returned to the farm when the next load was picked up. This required the farmer to purchase and keep extra milk cans on hand, but that was a small price to pay for convenience. Platforms were erected by the side of the main road through Pomfret so that during the winter farmers could sleigh their milk cans to them for pickup by the milk trucks, which were unable to navigate the infrequently maintained back roads where many farmers lived.

   2011, Cameron Clifford, Farms, Flatlanders, and Fords: A Story of People and Place in Rural Vermont 1890-2010

   Synonyms: milk churn

2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see milk, can: any can used for milk in any way.