v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Bilked p. pr. & vb. n. Bilking. ] [ Origin unknown. Cf. Balk. ] To frustrate or disappoint; to deceive or defraud, by nonfulfillment of engagement; to leave in the lurch; to give the slip to; as, to bilk a creditor. Thackeray. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A thwarting an adversary in cribbage by spoiling his score; a balk. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A cheat; a trick; a hoax. Hudibras. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Nonsense; vain words. B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A person who tricks a creditor; an untrustworthy, tricky person. Marryat. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The milk that remains after the butter is separated from the cream. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A filamentous fresh-water alga (Conferva rivularis of Linnaeus, Rhizoclonium rivulare of Kutzing). [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A little devil; a devilet. [ 1913 Webster ]

See Floss silk, under Floss. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Physiol.) The milk secreted just before, or directly after, the birth of a child or of the young of an animal; colostrum. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Scot. ilk, OE. ilke the same, AS. ilca. Cf. Each. ] Same; each; every. [ Archaic ] Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Of that ilk, (a) denoting that a person's surname and the title of his estate are the same; as, Grant of that ilk, i.e., Grant of Grant. [ Scottish ] Jamieson. (a) Of the same kind. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

n. Kind; class; sort; type; as, him and his ilk; -- sometimes used to indicate disapproval when applied to people. [ 1913 Webster +PJC ]

a. [ See Ilk. ] Same. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

{ , pron. [ See Ilk, and One. ] Each one; every one. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

pos>n. Two cats fabled, in an Irish story, to have fought till nothing was left but their tails. It is probably a parable of a local contest between Kilkenny and Irishtown, which impoverished both towns. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. 1. A milkshake made with malt powder; also called simply a malted. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

2. A powder made of dried milk and malted cereals. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

prop. n. A genus of large evergreen trees with milky latex; pantropical.
Syn. -- genus Manilkara. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. [ AS. meoluc, meoloc, meolc, milc; akin to OFries. meloc, D. melk, G. milch, OHG. miluh, Icel. mjōlk, Sw. mjölk, Dan. melk, Goth. miluks, G. melken to milk, OHG. melchan, Lith. milszti, L. mulgere, Gr. 'ame`lgein. √107. Cf. Milch, Emulsion, Milt soft roe of fishes. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Physiol.) A white fluid secreted by the mammary glands of female mammals for the nourishment of their young, consisting of minute globules of fat suspended in a solution of casein, albumin, milk sugar, and inorganic salts. “White as morne milk.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Bot.) A kind of juice or sap, usually white in color, found in certain plants; latex. See Latex. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. An emulsion made by bruising seeds; as, the milk of almonds, produced by pounding almonds with sugar and water. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Zool.) The ripe, undischarged spat of an oyster. [ 1913 Webster ]

Condensed milk. See under Condense, v. t. --
Milk crust (Med.), vesicular eczema occurring on the face and scalp of nursing infants. See Eczema. --
Milk fever. (a) (Med.) A fever which accompanies or precedes the first lactation. It is usually transitory. (b) (Vet. Surg.) A form puerperal peritonitis in cattle; also, a variety of meningitis occurring in cows after calving. --
Milk glass, glass having a milky appearance. --
Milk knot (Med.), a hard lump forming in the breast of a nursing woman, due to obstruction to the flow of milk and congestion of the mammary glands. --
Milk leg (Med.), a swollen condition of the leg, usually in puerperal women, caused by an inflammation of veins, and characterized by a white appearance occasioned by an accumulation of serum and sometimes of pus in the cellular tissue. --
Milk meats, food made from milk, as butter and cheese. [ Obs. ] Bailey. --
Milk mirror. Same as Escutcheon, 2. --
Milk molar (Anat.), one of the deciduous molar teeth which are shed and replaced by the premolars. --
Milk of lime (Chem.), a watery emulsion of calcium hydrate, produced by macerating quicklime in water. --
Milk parsley (Bot.), an umbelliferous plant (Peucedanum palustre) of Europe and Asia, having a milky juice. --
Milk pea (Bot.), a genus (Galactia) of leguminous and, usually, twining plants. --
Milk sickness (Med.), See milk sickness in the vocabulary. --
Milk snake (Zool.), a harmless American snake (Ophibolus triangulus, or Ophibolus eximius). It is variously marked with white, gray, and red. Called also milk adder, chicken snake, house snake, etc. --
Milk sugar. (Physiol. Chem.) See Lactose, and Sugar of milk (below). --
Milk thistle (Bot.), an esculent European thistle (Silybum marianum), having the veins of its leaves of a milky whiteness. --
Milk thrush. (Med.) See Thrush. --
Milk tooth (Anat.), one of the temporary first set of teeth in young mammals; in man there are twenty. --
Milk tree (Bot.), a tree yielding a milky juice, as the cow tree of South America (Brosimum Galactodendron), and the Euphorbia balsamifera of the Canaries, the milk of both of which is wholesome food. --
Milk vessel (Bot.), a special cell in the inner bark of a plant, or a series of cells, in which the milky juice is contained. See Latex. --
Rock milk. See Agaric mineral, under Agaric. --
Sugar of milk. The sugar characteristic of milk; a hard white crystalline slightly sweet substance obtained by evaporation of the whey of milk. It is used in pellets and powder as a vehicle for homeopathic medicines, and as an article of diet. See Lactose. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Milked p. pr. & vb. n. Milking. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To draw or press milk from the breasts or udder of, by the hand or mouth; to withdraw the milk of. “Milking the kine.” Gay. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have given suck, and know
How tender 't is to love the babe that milks me. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To draw from the breasts or udder; to extract, as milk; as, to milk wholesome milk from healthy cows. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To draw anything from, as if by milking; to compel to yield profit or advantage; to plunder. Tyndale. [ 1913 Webster ]

They [ the lawyers ] milk an unfortunate estate as regularly as a dairyman does his stock. London Spectator. [ 1913 Webster ]

To milk the street, to squeeze the smaller operators in stocks and extract a profit from them, by alternately raising and depressing prices within a short range; -- said of the large dealers. [ Cant ] --
To milk a telegram, to use for one's own advantage the contents of a telegram belonging to another person. [ Cant ] [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To draw or to yield milk. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

2. (Elec.) To give off small gas bubbles during the final part of the charging operation; -- said of a storage battery. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A type of edible mushroom (Lactarius delicioso).
Syn. -- Lactarius delicioso. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

a. Consisting of milk. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who milks; also, a mechanical apparatus for milking cows. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A cow or other animal that gives milk. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Full of milk; abounding with food. [ R. ] “Milkful vales.” Sylvester. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a milky manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. State or quality of being milky. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. White-livered; cowardly; timorous. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. A woman who milks cows or is employed in the dairy. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Milkmen A man who sells milk or delivers it to customers. [ 1913 Webster ]

pos>n. A frothy drink of milk and flavoring and sometimes fruit or ice cream, shaken together or blended in a blender.
Syn. -- milk shake, shake. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

. (Veter., Med.) A peculiar malignant disease, occurring in parts of the western United States, and affecting certain kinds of farm stock (esp. cows), and persons using the meat or dairy products of infected cattle. Its chief symptoms in man are uncontrollable vomiting, obstinate constipation, pain, and muscular tremors. Its origin in cattle has been variously ascribed to the presence of certain plants in their food, and to polluted water. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. A piece of bread sopped in milk; figuratively, an effeminate or weak-minded person. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

To wed a milksop or a coward ape. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

(Bot.) A leguminous herb (Astragalus glycyphyllos) of Europe and Asia, supposed to increase the secretion of milk in goats. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The name is sometimes taken for the whole genus Astragalus, of which there are about two hundred species in North America, and even more elsewhere. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. a wagon for delivering milk. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

n. (Bot.) Any plant of the genera Asclepias and Acerates, abounding in a milky juice, and having its seed attached to a long silky down; silkweed. The name is also applied to several other plants with a milky juice, as to several kinds of spurge. Its leaves are a favorite food source for the larvae of the monarch butterfly. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. (Bot.) A genus of plants (Polygala) of many species. The common European Polygala vulgaris was supposed to have the power of producing a flow of milk in nurses. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The species of Campanula, or bellflower, are sometimes called milkwort, from their juice. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. 1. Consisting of, or containing, milk. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pails high foaming with a milky flood. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Like, or somewhat like, milk; whitish and turbid; as, the water is milky. “Milky juice.” Arbuthnot. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Yielding milk. “Milky mothers.” Roscommon. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Mild; tame; spiritless. [ 1913 Webster ]

Has friendship such a faint and milky heart? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Milky Way. (Astron.) See Galaxy, 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Silk treated with oil to make it water-tight; -- it is used to make raincoats. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

(Bot.) A low, fleshy perennial herb (Glaux maritima) found along northern seashores. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OE. silk, selk, AS. seolc, seoloc; akin to Icel. silki, SW. & Dan. silke; prob. through Slavic from an Oriental source; cf. Lith. szilkai, Russ. shelk', and also L. sericum Seric stuff, silk. Cf. Sericeous. Serge a woolen stuff. ] 1. The fine, soft thread produced by various species of caterpillars in forming the cocoons within which the worm is inclosed during the pupa state, especially that produced by the larvae of Bombyx mori. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, thread spun, or cloth woven, from the above-named material. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. That which resembles silk, as the filiform styles of the female flower of maize. [ 1913 Webster ]

Raw silk, silk as it is wound off from the cocoons, and before it is manufactured. --
Silk cotton, a cottony substance enveloping the seeds of the silk-cotton tree. --
Silk-cotton tree (Bot.), a name for several tropical trees of the genera Bombax and Eriodendron, and belonging to the order Bombaceae. The trees grow to an immense size, and have their seeds enveloped in a cottony substance, which is used for stuffing cushions, but can not be spun. --
Silk flower. (Bot.) (a) The silk tree. (b) A similar tree (Calliandra trinervia) of Peru. --
Silk fowl (Zool.), a breed of domestic fowls having silky plumage. --
Silk gland (Zool.), a gland which secretes the material of silk, as in spider or a silkworm; a sericterium. --
Silk gown, the distinctive robe of a barrister who has been appointed king's or queen's counsel; hence, the counsel himself. Such a one has precedence over mere barristers, who wear stuff gowns. [ Eng. ] --
Silk grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Stipa comata) of the Western United States, which has very long silky awns. The name is also sometimes given to various species of the genera Aqave and Yucca. --
Silk moth (Zool.), the adult moth of any silkworm. See Silkworm. --
Silk shag, a coarse, rough-woven silk, like plush, but with a stiffer nap. --
Silk spider (Zool.), a large spider (Nephila plumipes), native of the Southern United States, remarkable for the large quantity of strong silk it produces and for the great disparity in the sizes of the sexes. --
Silk thrower,
Silk throwster, one who twists or spins silk, and prepares it for weaving. Brande & C. --
Silk tree (Bot.), an Asiatic leguminous tree (Albizzia Julibrissin) with finely bipinnate leaves, and large flat pods; -- so called because of the abundant long silky stamens of its blossoms. Also called silk flower. --
Silk vessel. (Zool.) Same as Silk gland, above. --
Virginia silk (Bot.), a climbing plant (Periploca Græca) of the Milkweed family, having a silky tuft on the seeds. It is native in Southern Europe. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ AS. seolcen, seolocen. ] 1. Of or pertaining to silk; made of, or resembling, silk; as, silken cloth; a silken veil. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Soft; delicate; tender; smooth; as, silken language. “Silken terms precise.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Dressed in silk. “A . . . silken wanton.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To render silken or silklike. Dyer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. The quality or state of being silky or silken; softness and smoothness. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Effeminacy; weakness. [ R. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Silkmen A dealer in silks; a silk mercer. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Silkiness. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Wearing silk stockings (which among men were formerly worn chiefly by the luxurious or aristocratic); hence, elegantly dressed; aristocratic; luxurious; -- chiefly applied to men, often by way of reproach.

[ They ] will find their levees crowded with silk-stocking gentry, but no yeomanry; an army of officers without soldiers. Jefferson. [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

n. (Bot.) Any plant of the genera Asclepias and Acerates whose seed vessels contain a long, silky down; milkweed. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ AS. seolcwyrm. ] (Zool.) The larva of any one of numerous species of bombycid moths, which spins a large amount of strong silk in constructing its cocoon before changing to a pupa. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The common species (Bombyx mori) feeds on the leaves of the white mulberry tree. It is native of China, but has long been introduced into other countries of Asia and Europe, and is reared on a large scale. In America it is reared only to small extent. The Ailanthus silkworm (Philosamia cynthia) is a much larger species, of considerable importance, which has been introduced into Europe and America from China. The most useful American species is the Polyphemus. See Polyphemus. [ 1913 Webster ]

Pernyi silkworm, the larva of the Pernyi moth. See Pernyi moth. --
Silkworm gut, a substance prepared from the contents of the silk glands of silkworms and used in making lines for angling. See Gut. --
Silkworm rot, a disease of silkworms; muscardine. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Compar. Silkier superl. Silkiest. ] 1. Of or pertaining to silk; made of, or resembling, silk; silken; silklike; as, a silky luster. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Hence, soft and smooth; as, silky wine. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Covered with soft hairs pressed close to the surface, as a leaf; sericeous. [ 1913 Webster ]

Silky oak (Bot.), a lofty Australian tree (Grevillea robusta) with silky tomentose lobed or incised leaves. It furnishes a valuable timber. [ 1913 Webster ]

pron. [ Cf. Ilk same. ] That same; this; that. [ Obs. ] “I love thilk lass.” Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Thou spake right now of thilke traitor death. Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Probably fr. Hind. tasar a shuttle, Skr. tasara, trasara. ] (a) A silk cloth made from the cocoons of a caterpillar other than the common silkworm, much used in Bengal and China. (b) The silk fiber itself. [ Written also tusseh silk. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ See Whelk a mollusk. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Zool.) A kind of mollusk, a whelk. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Zool.) The scoter. [ Prov. Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

pron. Which. [ Obs. or Scot. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ Whilk is sometimes used in Chaucer to represent the Northern dialect. [ 1913 Webster ]