milk, n. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

milk n.

1. bodily fluids.

(a) semen; thus milk-can, milk-pail, the vagina.

1619–20		I.C. Two Merry Milke-Maids I iii: Vdfoot, and my Dagger had not bin rustie, that I might haue drawne it with credit, I’d a stucke it in the middle of your Milk Pale.
1632		J. Shirley Hyde Park IV iii: I know by her pail; an she were otherwise, T’would turn her milk.
1683		XV Comforts of Marriage 69: She wants due Benevolence, and requires more Milk than he can give her, and therefore is resolved to Lap elsewhere.
1834		‘The Milk Maid’ in Libertine’s Songster in Spedding & Watt (eds) I 132: If you only what I desire will do, / My milk you’ll find plentiful, worthy, and free [...] In milking of Johnny, you plainly, I wot, / Have taken too much of the milk in the pot.
c.1900		A. Cairene Sixfold Sensuality 14: There was the Countess cleaning the spare milk out of her milk can with a napkin.
1969		H. Rap Brown Die Nigger Die! 27: I’m the bed tucker the cock plucker the motherfucker / The milkshaker the record breaker the population maker.
1970		‘Troy Conway’ Cunning Linguist (1973) 10: I was just working up a head of steam; and for each Venus mound swallowing me whole, up to the hilt, I had a firm jet-propelled supply of muscle and milk to oblige.
1987		personal ad, adult bookstore Murray & Murrell Lang. Sadomasochism (1989) 95: Cum freak wants to drink your milk.
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 106: Her lips locked around my 10-1/2 like a starving infant sucking a mother’s breast. I exploded my milk into her mouth.
2003		review of Man Academy 2 at www.gayvideodad.com 24 Apr. 🌐 Michaels and Johnson tag-team Kelley’s butt, and the scene ends with milk on everyone’s cookies.

(b) vaginal secretions.

1669		J. Aubrey Ms. Aubr. 21 n.p.: Her breath is sweet as the rose in June Her skin is as soft as silk And if you tickle her in the flank She’ll freely give down her milk.
1686		‘Vindication’ Harleian Mss. 7319.464: ’Twas the Indian Silk That brought down the Milk Which her Husband did take for a Kindness.
c.1900		A. Cairene Sixfold Sensuality 24: She [...] converted her middle finger into a dolly and rubbed it up and down the inside of her milk can, until she drew some milk out.

2. a weakling [abbr. SE milksop].

1881

‘’Arry on Fashion’ in Punch 10 Sept. 110/2: Patriotic? Well, them as talks Muggins like that to our gurls must be milks.

3. denatured alcohol or methylated spirits mixed with water and drunk by down-and-out alcoholics [the resulting white ‘milky’ colour].

1945		H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/1: [D]enatured alcohol with water [is] a beverage known as milk or smoke because of its appearance, and poison to everybody but smokehounds .
1996		R. Rendell Keys to the Street 59: The meths and water mixture, cloudy white fluid the jacks men called milk.

4. (N.Z. prison) tattooing ink.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 116/2: milk n. tattooing ink.

In compounds

milkhound (n.)

(US) a drinker of denatured alcohol and water.

1945

H.B. Darrach Jr. ‘Sticktown Nocturne’ in Baltimore Sun (MD) 12 Aug. A-1/1: Milkhounds, or smokehounds, drink denatured alcohol with water, a beverage [that is] poison to everybody but smokehounds .

milk jug (n.) (also milk pan)

the vagina.

1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy III 9: Mind well your Milk-pan, And ne’er touch a Man.
1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

milkman (n.)

1. the penis.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: milkman euph. affectionate Penis; pork sword.

2. a person who masturbates frequently.

1984

Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 738/1: C.19–early 20.

In phrases

make a milk run (v.)

(US gay) to frequent a men’s lavatory looking for sex.

1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular 134: make a milk run to tour the all-night washrooms in an attempt to secure a partner.
1999		Gaymart.com Queer Sl. in the Gay 90s 🌐 Make a Milk Run – To cruise a men’s room.

put milk in the coffee (v.)

(W.I.) to have sexual intercourse.

1998

(con. 1940s) P. Cumper One Bright Child 53: You know how much Jamaicans love to put milk in the coffee!

SE in slang uses

In compounds

milk bottle (n.)

1. a baby.

1909

J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 176/1: Milk-bottle (Com. Peoples’). Baby.

2. usu. in pl., the female breasts.

1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1972		B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

3. (W.I.) a white woman (who is looking for sex).

2013

New Statesman 23-29 Aug. 36/3: I look for a milk bottle (white women just arrived on the island). Milk bottles that need filling.

milk bottle bottoms (n.)

see coke bottle glasses n.

milk factory (n.)

(US) in pl., the female breasts.

1946		J.H. Burns Gallery (2004) 211: Nuttin but rear ends bouncin like Jello and milk factories under dere dresses.
2002		(con. 1970s) P. Rust No Stale Juh 🌐 Josh, I heard that at the end of ‘Grease,’ Olivia-Newton John wears a tight outfit and you can see her milk-factories. And yes, Josh, her milk-factories are larger than most average-sized milk factories!

milk route (n.)

(US) a female breast.

c.1935

‘Mae West in “The Hip Flipper”’ [comic strip] in B. Adelman Tijuana Bibles (1997) 94: He tried to appease her boundless lust by chewing on her milk route.

milk shake (n.)

1. (US) in pl., the female breasts.

1916		H.N. Cary Sl. of Venery.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 192: Look at them milk shakes!

2. see also separate entry.

milk shop (n.) (also milk walk)

the female breasts.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 108/1: Apple dumplings, a woman’s bosom, dugs, cat’s heads, milk shops.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 738: [...] C.19–early 20.

milktoast (n.)

see Caspar Milquetoast n.

milk wagon (n.)

(US gay) in pl., the female breasts.

1972

B. Rodgers Queens’ Vernacular.

milk walk (n.)

1. (US Und.) a beggar’s ‘beat’.

1872

N.Y. Times 17 Mar. 2/7: How’s the milk-walk, Jerry?

2. see milk shop

milk-woman (n.)

1. (Scot.) a wet-nurse; thus green milk-woman, one who has only recently given birth.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. a female masturbator.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

In phrases

bring someone to their milk (v.) [? image of a baby quietening when given its milk; ? a stubborn calf that refuses to drink but gives in when overwhelmed by hunger]

(US) to subdue someone, to bring someone to their senses, to make them accept authority; also come to one’s milk, to come to one’s senses.

1857		J.G. Holland Bay Path 209: There ain’t anything that’ll bring you to your milk half so quick as a good double-and-twisted thrashin .
1865		‘Oliver Optic’ Young Lieutenant 184: Put that in your hopper, reb; and the sooner you dry up, the sooner you'll come to your milk.

do the milk route (v.) [the image of a milk roundsman]

of one who is searching for or selling sex, to tour bus stations or other such places very late at night or very early in the morning looking for trade.

1986–7

Maledicta IX 150: Occasionally a female pro will […] do the milk route (tour bus stations or other such places very late at night or very early in the morning looking for trade).

let the milk down (v.) (also give down one’s milk) [breastfeeding imagery]

(US, Southern) to reveal the facts after withholding them for some time.

1973		W. Crawford Stryker 25: You’re thinning out my patience. [...] Give down your milk before you give me the ass [HDAS].
1984		R. Wilder You All Spoken Here 22: Let the milk down: Tell it all; don’t hold back; wring it out.

milk and honey route (n.)

(US tramp) a rail route that is renowned for good hand-outs, esp. one passing through Mormon parts of Utah; note in cit. 1926, bread-and-milk route is prob. a fabrication on the part of the speaker.

1915		H.F. Day Landloper 33: Have you ever hit the sage-brush trail, hiked the milk-and-honey route from Ogden through the Mormon country [...] Hey?
1926		W.H. Davies Adventures of Johnny Walker 253: Chicago Slim, who was relating to Bony – an English beggar – his awful suffering for a week in The State of Utah, where a beggar had no other food than bread and milk [...] and how travelling in that part was known to all beggars as ‘the bread-and-milk route’.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 24: Often the hobos speak of a railroad as a ‘milk and honey route’. The original milk and honey route was a railroad from Salt Lake City southward through the valleys of Utah.
1933		‘Goat’ Laven Rough Stuff 101: On the way I stopped at Salt Lake City, Utah, which is what the bums call the milk-and-honey route.

milk in the coco(a)nut (n.)

(orig. US) a puzzling fact or circumstance, a crux; esp. in phr. that accounts for the milk in the coconut, a phr. used to respond to someone’s explanation of an event or action; note ad hoc var. in cit. 1885.

1832		Morn. Chron. 10 Nov. 3/3: Ah, ah! here is the mytsery unravelled. This accountsa for the milk in the cocoa-nut.
1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 6 Aug. n.p.: Charley’s late visit to Poughkeepsie accounts for [...] the ‘milk in the cocoa nut’.
1850		W.K. Northall Life and Recollections of Yankee Hill 162: This part of your subject may not account for the milk in the cocoa nut, but it does account for why your humble sarvint is here. All owin’ tew his New England.
c.1850		Peeping Tom (London) 13 51/2: This is the hanimal vot take the female ring tail monkey into the woods [...] vich fully accounts for the milk in the cocoa nuts.
1873		Sl. Dict. 124: Cocoa-nut, the head. [...] Also, when anything is explained to a man for the first time, it is not unusual for him to say, ‘Ah, that accounts for the milk in the cocoa-nut’ ? a remark which has its origin in a clever but not very moral story.
1877		H. Hartigan Stray Leaves (1st ser.) 269: ‘That accounts for the milk av the cocoanut,’ shouted Corporal Hennessy, ‘that’s why we got our grog this morning so early’.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 17 July 9/4: So this is what accounts for ‘the milk in the cocoa-nut,’ and the fact that still another German Prince hasn’t come to England to get a living.
1883		Frank Leslie’s Pop. Mthly 16 47/1: Mehemet Ali belonged to the War Department, and Suleiman was from Tophané, and that ought to be sufficient to account for the milk in the cocoanut.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 6/4: Mr. Minister Wright refused to give him the appointment because he (Mr. Holborrow) was unpopular with the officers. Upon hearing this, the Richmond Wolseley replied that so far as three of the officers in question were concerned, he could easily explain how the lacteal fluid got into their particular cocoa-nuts, because one of those heroes bold was heavily in his […] debt, another was a discharged servant of his, and the third he had refused to recommend for an appointment under Government.
1893		Congressional Record 28 Feb. 2299/1: Here is the milk in the cocoanut! A frank confession it is [DA].
1895		Truth (Sydney) 5 May 3/3: ‘He spoke out straight and square [...] ’ ‘Which perhaps accounts for the milk in the coconut,’ said I.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 8 Sept. 15/1: The fact that Mr. Reid is a graduate and was for a long time a bright star of Sydney Debating Society aforesaid possibly accounts for the milk in the cocoanut.
1902		Indep. 54 2035: Two or three salient facts will account for the milk in the cocoanut. The Legislature of 1899 [...] enacted a law creating a State Tax Commission [etc.].
1910		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Dec. 13/2: Or the Bench might itself have been a sheep-owner, which would account for the milk in the cocoanut and divers other things.
1918		‘Bartimeus’ Long Trick 23: ‘Hence the milk in the coconut, as you might say’.
1918		J.M. Copeland Trail of Swinging Lanterns 31: The demands of the age and growth of travel account for ‘the milk in the cocoanut’.
1921		J. Harvey Campine Fowl 9: No great stretch of imagination is required to believe that the ancient Britons [...] were Campinists. And that may ‘account for the milk in the cocoanut’.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 88: Explanations of how things work or have come out are usually capped with ‘And that’s how the milk got in the coconut!’.

In exclamations

milk and water! (excl.) (also both ends of the busk!) [the ref. is to the female breasts and the vagina, which give respective milk and urine or vaginal juices; a SE busk is a corset, or the wood, steel or whalebone that stiffens it]

a toast, further defined as ‘Both ends of the busk!’.

1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.