milk delivery person
- noun
- /mɪlk dɪˈlɪvəri ˈpɜrsən/
- The milk delivery person brings fresh bottles to our doorstep every morning.
Examples
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She waved to the milk delivery person as he made his rounds through the neighborhood.
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I saw a milk delivery person on my street.
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Due to advances in refrigeration, the job of milk delivery person has become less common.
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The milk delivery person came early today.
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She waved to the milk delivery person as he made his rounds through the neighborhood.
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The milk delivery person brings fresh bottles to our doorstep every morning.
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The milk delivery person came early today.
Synonyms
A person who delivers milk to people's homes
A woman who delivers milk to people's doorsteps
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a person whose job is to deliver milk' is directly and transparently composed from the known constituents 'milk' + 'delivery' + 'person' — an agentive compound whose semantics follow straightforward English compounding rules. This is a common, cross-linguistic pattern (product + delivery + agent) and would be immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituent words.
Etymology
Milk delivery person comes from the simple image of someone carrying bottles of milk on a cart or bicycle early in the morning and leaving them at people's doorsteps. Because they did this every morning, the phrase now means 'a person whose job is to deliver milk'.