No milk in the cocoa-nut, adj. phr. (common).—Silly or crazed. For synonyms see Apartments to let.
Bristol-milk. See Bristol.
Milk-and-molasses, subs. (American).—See
quot.
1833. Neal, Down Easters, vii. p. 96. The people of this country are of two colours, black and white . . . or half-and-half sometimes at the south, where they are called milk-and-molasses.
Milk-and-water, subs. (old).—1. A
stuff under this strange designation
appears in 16th century inventories,
but we have no guide as
to what determined its title.—Draper's
Dict.
1555. Inventory of Richard Gurnell, a Kendal clothier, xj. Yards of mylke and watter, 18s.
1571. Inventory of John Wilkenson, of Newcastle, j. Piece of mylk and watter.
2. (venery).—See quot.
1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Milk-and-Water. Both ends of the busk. [An old world toast].
Adj. (colloquial).—Insipid: undistinguished; harmless.
1823. Byron, Don Juan, C. viii. stanza 80. And one good action in the midst of crimes Is 'quite refreshing,' in the affected phrase Of these ambrosial Pharisaic times, With all their pretty milk-and-water ways.
1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, . Simple appeals to the affections, which people understood better than the milk-and-water lagrime, sospiri, and felicità of the eternal Donizettian music with which we are favoured now-a-days.
1861. C. Reade, Cloister and the Hearth, xxvi. A milk-and-water bourgeois.
1889. Star, 12 Dec., p. 7, col. 1. The giant will be no milk-and-water giant, as young Mr. Geo. Conquest will represent him.
Milker, subs. (common).—1. See
quot. and Milk, verb. sense 4.
1891. Cassell's Sat. Jour., Sept., p. 1036, col. 2. When a telegram sent to a specific person is surreptitiously made use of or drawn from by others, it is said to have been 'milked;' and those who thus steal are called milkers. To guard, as far as possible, against this being done, important special and press messages from abroad, and sometimes home telegrams also, are written in cipher.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also milking-pail, milk-jug, and milk-pan. For synonyms see Monosyllable.
3. (colloquial).—A milk-giver.
1854. Quarterly Rev., cxlv. 292. One individual, several years ago, possessed 1500 milkers.
Milker's-calf, subs. (Australian).—A
calf yet with the cow; hence,
a mother's boy or girl.
1888. Rolf Boldrewood, Robbery Under Arms, i. I used to laugh at him, and call him a regular old crawler of a milker's calf in the old days.
Milk-fever. See Pencil-fever.
Milk-hole, subs. (Winchester College).—The
hole formed by the
roush (q.v.) under a pot (q.v.).—Notions.
Milking-pail. To work (or carry)
the milking-pail, verb. phr.
(old racing).—See Milk, verb.,
sense 3.
c.186[?]. Baily's Magazine. These al fresco speculators have their 'dead uns' and carry milking-pails like their more civilized brethren privileged with the entrée to the clubs and the Corner.
Milk-livered, adj. (old colloquial).—Timid;
cowardly.
1605-6. Shakspeare, King Lear, iv. 2. Gon. Milk-liver'd man! That bear'st a cheek for blows, a head for wrongs.
