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Glite Dictionary
milch cow

milch cow

6.3
A cow that a farmer keeps to give milk
  • noun
  • Archaic
translation icon : vaca lechera
  • The farmer decided to purchase a few milch cows to increase his milk production.

Examples

  • There are several small farms with a few milch cows and some swine, but only two or three households are full-scale farms.

    Academic text (1993)

  • Madame Page had noticed slight changes in her nailed-up twig of sapling fir and in the demeanor of the family milch cow.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Once a deer hunter shot the horse from under Rex Higgins, bringing home his milch cows.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Claude squirted out knowledge the way his mother worked the teats of the family milch cow.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Every morning, the children help feed the milch cows before school.

  • She learned how to milk a milch cow from her grandmother.

Synonyms

dairy cow
vsmilch cow
5 1.5

A cow that is kept mainly to give milk

expresses a stricter sense of being raised specifically to produce milk
milk cow
vsmilch cow
3 1.0

A cow kept to give milk for people to drink

is specific to milk production and not for meat or work
milker
vsmilch cow
1 3.2

A cow that people keep and raise to produce milk

is about being kept for milk rather than emphasizing breeding
milcher
vsmilch cow
  • Archaic
9.9

A cow or other cattle kept to give milk

is limited to female animals kept especially to produce milk

Antonyms

beef cattle
3 2.6

Cattle raised mainly for their meat

Surface Forms

milch cow singular
milch cows plural

Morphology

milch + cow

The meaning is directly compositional: 'milch' denotes milk-producing and 'cow' denotes the animal, so together they mean a cow kept for milk. Although 'milch' is somewhat archaic in modern English, the adjective+noun pattern is transparent and mirrors common constructions in other languages (e.g. Spanish 'vaca lechera'), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

Milch cow comes from the old word milch meaning 'milk' and the word cow, making a simple picture of a cow whose job is to give 'milk'. So today milch cow means a cow kept for giving 'milk'.