milky

comparative milkier · superlative milkiest

1. Resembling milk in color, consistency, smell, etc.; consisting of milk.

   The Pails high-foaming with a milky Flood,

   1715–1720, Homer, “Book XVI”, in Alexander Pope, transl., The Iliad of Homer, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London: […] W[illiam] Bowyer, for Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, page 267, line 780

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   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]

   [S]ome Plants upon breaking their Vessels yield a milky Juice; others a Yellow of peculiar Tastes and Qualities.

   1731, John Arbuthnot, chapter III, in An Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments, and the Choice of Them, According to the Different Constitutions of Human Bodies. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson […], →OCLC, prop[osition] III, page 51

   [T]he kind, slightly milky odour of cattle […]

   1928 July 27, Radclyffe Hall, chapter 3, in The Well of Loneliness […], London: Jonathan Cape, →OCLC, page 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 October 27, J[ohn] M[axwell] Coetzee, “(please specify the page)”, in Waiting for the Barbarians, London: Martin Secker & Warburg, →ISBN

   Synonyms: lacteous

2. informalcolorOf the black in an image, appearing as dark gray rather than black.
3. Containing (an especially large amount of) milk.

   milky cocoa    milky tea

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   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, N.Y.: New Directions, published 2000, page 13

   [W]e 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

   Synonyms: lactiferous

4. Containing a whitish liquid, juicy.

   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.

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   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, N.Y.: Appleton, page 575

5. informalCowardly.

   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]

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   ‘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, London: William Heinemann, →OCLC

   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

   Synonyms: fearful

6. informalImmature, childish.

   I am no milky, modest, obedient youth, Constance.

   1882, Walter Besant, chapter 2, in The Revolt of Man, London: Blackwood, page 45

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   Gone is your fighting Youth, whom you have bred / From milkie Childhood to the years of bloud!

   1651, William D’avenant [i.e., William Davenant], “The First Book. Canto the 6 = Sixth.”, in Gondibert: An Heroick Poem, London: […] [Thomas Newcomb?] for John Holden, […], →OCLC, stanza 48, page 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.

   1848, [Charles Kingsley], chapter I, in Yeast: A Problem. […], London: John W[illiam] Parker, […], published 1851, →OCLC, page 15

   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

   Synonyms: infantile

7. obsoleteProducing milk, lactating.

   […] ye heare the Lamb by many a bleat / Woo’d to come suck the milkie Teat:

   1648, Robert Herrick, “A Country Life”, in Hesperides: Or, The Works both Humane & Divine […], London: […] John Williams, and Francis Eglesfield, and are to be sold by Tho[mas] Hunt, […], →OCLC, page 37

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   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

   Synonyms: lactifluous, nursing, with milk