'Milk sickness' definitions:
Definition of 'milk sickness'
From: WordNet
noun
Disease of livestock and especially cattle poisoned by eating certain kinds of snakeroot [syn: trembles, milk sickness]
noun
Caused by consuming milk from cattle suffering from trembles
Definition of 'Milk sickness'
From: GCIDE
- Milk \Milk\ (m[i^]lk), n. [AS. meoluc, meoloc, meolc, milc; akin to OFries. meloc, D. melk, G. milch, OHG. miluh, Icel. mj[=o]lk, Sw. mj["o]lk, Dan. melk, Goth. miluks, G. melken to milk, OHG. melchan, Lith. milszti, L. mulgere, Gr. 'ame`lgein. [root]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]
Definition of 'Milk sickness'
From: GCIDE
- Milk sickness \Milk sickness\ (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.]