'Milk thistle' definitions:

Definition of 'milk thistle'

noun

Any of several Old World coarse prickly-leaved shrubs and subshrubs having milky juice and yellow flowers; widely naturalized; often noxious weeds in cultivated soil [syn: sow thistle, milk thistle]

noun

Tall Old World biennial thistle with large clasping white- blotched leaves and purple flower heads; naturalized in California and South America [syn: milk thistle, lady's thistle, Our Lady's mild thistle, holy thistle, blessed thistle, Silybum marianum]

Definition of 'Milk thistle'

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]