milk
part of speech
noun (milk — uncountable); verb (milk, milks, milked, milking)
meaning for a pupil
1) Milk is the white drink that comes from cows, goats and other animals. tree →
2) Milk is also the food that mother mammals make for their babies. tree →
3) To milk a cow or goat is to take milk from it. tree →
4) To milk something is also to get as much as you can from it: «He milked the joke.» tree →
5) Some plant drinks are called milk too, like oat milk or coconut milk. tree →
sense in the lessons
a liquid measured in cups, liters, gallons or cartons; things bought, poured, drunk or shared; in science mammals feed their babies milk, and milk gives calcium for bones; phrases «a glass of milk», «spilt milk», «milk tooth» (a baby tooth, British)
examples
- Mom buys 3 cartons of milk. tree →
- Each glass holds 250 milliliters of milk. tree →
- A cow gives 20 liters of milk a day. tree →
- Sara drank 2 cups of milk. tree →
- The farmer milks the goats every morning. tree →
- Puppies drink their mother's milk. tree →
- Milk has calcium, which helps build strong bones. tree →
- Don't cry over spilt milk. tree →
- Her offerings were cakes and milk. tree →
note
Usually counted by a unit or a container (cups, liters, bottles), not by itself: «some milk», «much milk», never «three milks» in school use. «Per day» gives a rate. Trap: the unit tells what to count, not the word «milk». Safety: drink milk that is kept cold and not past its date.
In the corpora
- A newborn calf stands within about an hour so that it can drink milk and keep up with the herd.
- Whales are mammals: they breathe air, are warm-blooded, give birth to live young and feed them milk.
- Milk left out on a warm table goes sour because bacteria multiply fast in warmth and make acid; the fridge slows them down.
- And Tom's saucer of milk?
- Hedgehogs should not be given milk, which can make them ill; leave out water and meaty cat or dog food instead.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «milk» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.