wolf's milk

9.9

A tall weed with many leaves that spreads quickly and harms crops

noun
/wʊlfz mɪlk/

: leche de lobo

The field was overrun with wolf's milk, making it hard for crops to grow.

Examples

Farmers struggle to control the spread of wolf's milk in their pastures.
The plant wolf's milk is recognized as an invasive species in many parts of North America.
The plant wolf's milk can spread rapidly in gardens.
Many people consider wolf's milk a troublesome weed.
The plant wolf's milk is recognized as an invasive species in many parts of North America.
Farmers struggle to control the spread of wolf's milk in their pastures.
The field was overrun with wolf's milk, making it hard for crops to grow.

Synonyms

leafy spurge

vswolf's milk

Specialized

1 9.8

A tall plant with greenish-yellow flowers that spreads and harms grasses and crops

is broader noting its general weed status and regional naturalization

Euphorbia esula

vswolf's milk

9.8

A tall plant from Europe and Asia that lives for many years and spreads like a weed in North America

is the everyday common name used instead of the Latin form

Surface Forms

wolf's milk singular

wolf's milks plural

Morphology

wolf's + milk

The compound 'wolf's milk' is a conventionalized plant name referring to leafy spurge, which cannot be predicted from the literal constituents 'wolf' and 'milk'; a B1 learner knowing those words would expect something like milk from a wolf, not a tall perennial weed. Because the meaning is lexicalized and not compositionally built from the parts, it is unintelligible from the constituents alone.

Etymology

The name wolf's milk comes from the plant's white, milky sap: when you break a stem it oozes a sticky white liquid like milk. People likely added wolf to show the plant was 'wild' or 'dangerous', so the name stuck for this troublesome weed.