▪ I. † milch, n. Obs.
[? f. the vb.]
The capacity or condition of giving milk; also, a yield or quantity of milk.
| 1634 W. Wood New Eng. Prosp. i. iv, [Cattle] being generally larger and better of milch. 1642 J. Eaton Honey-c. Free Justif. 380 Like a shrewd cow, that gives a good milch, and then kicketh it all downe, when she hath done. |
▪ II. milch, a.
(mɪltʃ)
Forms: 3 mielch, 3, 6–7 milche, 4–6 melche, 5–7 mylche, 6 mellche, mylch, 6–7 melch, 6– milch.
[ME. mielch, milche, repr. OE. *milce (in þri-milce, month of May, when the cows can be milked thrice in the day):—OTeut. type *melukjo-, f. *meluk- milk n.
The adj. actually found in OE. with this sense is meolc, melc, corresponding to MDu., MLG. melk, OHG. melch (MHG. melch, melc, mod.G. melk), ON. miolk-r; the stem of this adj. is identical with that of milk n., and is probably evolved from compounds.]
1. Of domestic mammals: Giving milk, kept for milking, ‘in milk’. (The opposite of dry.) See also milch cow.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 351/228 Ȝwane heo [sc. the cow] cam hom at eue, fair and round heo was, And swyþe Mielch al-so. c 1440 Jacob's Well 37 Þe tythe of þe pasture to þe drye beestys owȝte to be payid as wel as to þi melche beestys. 1548 in Rel. Ant. II. 17 Item, ij. mellche beastes, whiche were belonginge to the norcerye. 1560 Bible (Geneva) Gen. xxxii. 15 Thirty milche camels with their coltes. 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 875 Like a milch Doe, whose swelling dugs do ake, Hasting to feed her fawne. 1626 Bacon Sylva §778 Mixtures of Water in Ponds for Cattell, to make them more Milch. 1759 Chesterfield Lett. 16 Mar., I have just now bought a milch-goat, which is to graze, and nurse me at Blackheath. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. III. 14 That fine milch breed, which excels the cattle of any other part of the world. 1789 G. White Antiq. Selborne v. 324 Though barrow-hogs and young sows found no inconvenience from this food [yew-berries], yet milch-sows often died after such a repast. 1887 Morris Odyss. ix. 341 So to the milking his milch-ewes and his bleating goats he sat. |
† b. Applied to a woman, esp. a wet-nurse. Obs.
| c 1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 472/362 Þat child wolde souke and it nuste ȝwam, Þare nas no milk a-boute, ne no mielch wumman. c 1325 Lai le Freine 196 He..tok it [the child] his douhter, and hir bisought, That hye schuld kepe it as sche can, For sche was melche and couthe theran. 1563 T. Hill Art Garden. (1593) 49 And neither women in childebed, nor milch nourses,..may eate Parcely with their meats. 1662 J. Graunt Bills Mort. iii. 19 [Deaths] caused by carelessness, ignorance, and infirmity of the Milch-women. 1709 Steele Tatler No. 15 ¶2 One Country Milch-Wench, to whom I was committed, and put to the Breast. |
c. fig.
| 1658 J. Harrington Prerog. Pop. Govt. i. xi. Wks. (1700) 300 Thus a populous City makes a Country milch, or populous by sucking. |
† d. applied to the breasts or teats; also transf. to the eyes when weeping. Obs. rare.
| 1600 J. Lane Tom Tel-troth 123 Pallas, the Nurse of Nature-helping Art,..From whose milch teates no pupils would depart. 1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 540 The instant Burst of Clamour that she made..Would haue made milche the Burning eyes of Heauen. |
† 2. nonce-uses. a. Of plants: Milky, full of milk. b. Of dew: Exuding like milk. Obs.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. iii. 1081 Item [sc. plants] that beth melche in ver novelles grene [L. uerno magis cum lactent nouella uirentia] Beth nought to fede. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xiii. 171 Exhaling the milch dewe which there had tarried long, And on the ranker grasse till past the noone-sted hong. |
▪ III. † milch, v. Obs.
[app. f. milch a.
Not repr. OE. melcan str. vb. or meolcian, (ᵹe)milcian wk. vb.: see milk v.]
trans. To milk (an animal). Also fig. Hence milched ppl. a., ˈmilching vbl. n.
| 1570 Levins Manip. 130/7 To Milch, mulgêre. 1589 Fleming Virg. Bucol. iii. 9 And let him couple foxes too, and milch the male-kind gotes. 1648 H. Ferne Serm. (1649) 8 Two new-milcht Kine drawing the Arke of God. 1648 Hexham, Een melckinge, a Milking, or a Milching. 1784 Twamley Dairying 23 The owner made a point of never keeping a Cow that was too old Milcht, or Milk'd too long from the time of Calving; or when any Cow went off her Milk..he always replaced her with a new Milcht one. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. II. 986 Where they [sc. calves] suck stale milched cows. |
b. Comb. (the verb-stem used attrib.), as milch-barn, milch-bowl, milch-house.
| 1599 Acc. Bk. W. Wray in Antiquary XXXII. 243, xv. milche boules. Ibid., In the milche house. 1810 Splendid Follies II. 177 The equestrians..arrived at the milch-barn. |