milk
verb/mɪlk/
/mɪlk/
Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they milk | /mɪlk/ /mɪlk/ |
| he / she / it milks | /mɪlks/ /mɪlks/ |
| past simple milked | /mɪlkt/ /mɪlkt/ |
| past participle milked | /mɪlkt/ /mɪlkt/ |
| -ing form milking | /ˈmɪlkɪŋ/ /ˈmɪlkɪŋ/ |
- milk something to take milk from a cow, goat, etc.Topics Farmingb2
Definitions on the go
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- (disapproving) to obtain as much money, advantage, etc. for yourself as you can from a particular situation, especially in a dishonest way
- milk A (from B) She's milked a small fortune from the company over the years.
- milk B (of A) She's milked the company of a small fortune.
- I know he's had a hard time lately, but he's certainly milking it for all it's worth (= using it as an excuse to do things that people would normally object to).
Extra Examples- He had milked her for information.
- These large firms milk the government of subsidies.
Word OriginOld English milc, milcian, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch melk and German Milch, from an Indo-European root shared by Latin mulgere and Greek amelgein ‘to milk’.
Idioms
See milk in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionarymilk/suck somebody/something dry
- to get from somebody/something all the money, help, information, etc. they have, usually giving nothing in return
- By earning millions from racing and giving pennies back, the bookmakers are milking the sport dry.
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milk