Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Milky.
  • adjective Botany Secreting or yielding a milky sap.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Being or becoming milky; having a milky appearance or consistence.
  • In botany, abounding in a thick milky juice, as the milkweed.
  • In entomology, secreting a milky fluid, as the joints of certain Coleoptera.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Having a milky look; becoming milky.
  • adjective (Bot.) Producing milk or a milklike juice or fluid, as the milkweed. See Latex.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective milky

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin lactēscēns, lactēscent-, present participle of lactēscere, inchoative of lactēre, to be milky, from lac, lact-, milk; see melg- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin lactescens, present participle of lactescere

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Examples

  • a similar pleasure may be occasioned to the parent by seeing and touching the egg or fetus after its birth; and in lactescent animals an additional pleasure is produced, by the new secretion of milk, as well as by its emission into the sucking lips of the infant.

    Note IX 1803

  • The recurrence, moreover, of pregnancy in the lactescent female may render the milk of a bad quality, and will invariably lessen its quantity.

    Remarks on the Subject of Lactation Edward Morton

  • That mental inquietude will impede digestion is a fact familiar to almost every one; but, I believe, it is not so generally known, that it will with no less certainty retard and alter the nature of the secretion furnished by the breasts of the lactescent female.

    Remarks on the Subject of Lactation Edward Morton

  • Her menses ceased; her mammae became engorged and discharged a serous lactescent fluid; her belly enlarged, and both she and her physician felt fetal movements in her abdomen.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • After marriage the breasts diminished, but she was unable to suckle either of her three children, the breasts becoming turgid but never lactescent.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • Her menses ceased; her mammæ became engorged and discharged a serous lactescent fluid; her belly enlarged, and both she and her physician felt fetal movements in her abdomen.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • After marriage the breasts diminished, but she was unable to suckle either of her three children, the breasts becoming turgid but never lactescent.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • Her mammae were engorged with a lactescent fluid, and she felt belly-movements like those of a child; but during all this time she had regular menstruation.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • Her mammæ were engorged with a lactescent fluid, and she felt belly-movements like those of a child; but during all this time she had regular menstruation.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

  • Dr. Madden left her, telling her that she was not pregnant, and when she reappeared at his office in a few days, he reassured her of the nonexistence of pregnancy; she became very indignant, triumphantly squeezed lactescent fluid from her breasts, and, insisting that she could feel fetal movements, left to seek a more sympathetic accoucheur.

    Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine 1896

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