milk train

noun

A slow passenger train leaving in the early hours of the morning.

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Meanings

nounmilk train (plural milk trains)

plural milk trains

  1. UKcolloquialA slow passenger train leaving in the early hours of the morning.

    But I also felt again the remembered romantic warmth of nodding off on the milk-train home in the early hours, with Liz by my side.

    2012, Pete Townshend, Who I Am, HarperCollins, →ISBN, page 245
  2. rail transportA goods train that carried milk, usually in tank wagons.

    On the Western Region, milk trains work up to London from Penzance, Wellington (Som.), Weymouth, Whitland, Carmarthen and Wootton Bassett, each train making several intermediate stops to attach further milk tanks, and in some cases to shed them.

    1959 March, R. C. Riley, “Home with the Milk”, in Trains Illustrated, page 154

Origin

Familiarised from the early morning goods trains used to transport milk on the British railway system.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

milk train. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/milk%20train

MLA

“milk train.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/milk%20train. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “milk train,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/milk%20train.

Source: milk train on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.