milky

Etymology

From Middle English mylky, melky, equivalent to milk + -y. Cognate with German milchig (“milky”), Swedish mjölkig (“milky”). Doublet of milchig.

adj

1. Resembling milk in color, consistency, smell, etc.; consisting of milk.
   1731, John Arbuthnot, An Essay concerning the Nature of Aliments, London: J. Tonson, Chapter 3, Prop. 3, p. 51, […] some Plants upon breaking their Vessels yield a milky Juice; others a Yellow of peculiar Tastes and Qualities.
   […] the kind, slightly milky odour of cattle […] 1928, Radclyffe Hall, The Well of Loneliness, Book One, Chapter Three, 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, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 2, in Waiting for the Barbarians, Penguin, published 1999, pages 37–38
2. (color science, informal) Of the black in an image, appearing as dark gray rather than black.
3. (of a drink) Containing (an especially large amount of) milk.
   milky tea; milky cocoa
   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: New Directions, published 2000, page 13
4. (of grains) Containing a whitish liquid, juicy.
   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: Appleton, page 575
   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.
5. (colloquial) Cowardly.
   ‘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, Vintage, published 2002, Part, Chapter, pp. 45-46
6. (colloquial) Immature, childish.
   Gone is your fighting Youth, whom you have bred 1651, William Davenant, Gondibert, London: John Holden, Book 2, Canto 3, Stanza 48, p. 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. 1851, Charles Kingsley, chapter 1, in Yeast, London: John W. Parker, page 15
   I am no milky, modest, obedient youth, Constance. […] 1882, Walter Besant, chapter 2, in The Revolt of Man, London: Blackwood, page 45
7. (obsolete) Producing milk, lactating.
   […] ye heare the Lamb by many a bleat 1648, Robert Herrick, “A Country Life”, in Hesperides, London: John Williams and Francis Eglesfield, page 37