1785. Grose, Vulgar Tongue, s.v. Milk-and-Water. Both ends of the
busk. [An old world toast].
Adj. (colloquial).—Insipid: undistinguished; harmless.
1823. Byron, Don Juan, C. viii. stanza 80. And one good action in
the midst of crimes Is ‘quite refreshing,’ in the affected phrase
Of these ambrosial Pharisaic times, With all their pretty
milk-and-water ways.
1847. Thackeray, Vanity Fair, iv. Simple appeals to the affections,
which people understood better than the milk-and-water lagrime,
sospiri, and felicità of the eternal Donizettian music with which
we are favoured now-a-days.
1861. C. Reade, Cloister and the Hearth, xxvi. A milk-and-water
bourgeois.
1889. Star, 12 Dec., p. 7, col. 1. The giant will be no
milk-and-water giant, as young Mr. Geo. Conquest will represent
him.
Milker, subs. (common).—1. See quot. and Milk, verb. sense 4.
1891. Cassell’s Sat. Jour., Sept., p. 1036, col. 2. When a telegram
sent to a specific person is surreptitiously made use of or drawn
from by others, it is said to have been ‘milked;’ and those who
thus steal are called milkers. To guard, as far as possible,
against this being done, important special and press messages from
abroad, and sometimes home telegrams also, are written in cipher.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum. Also milking-pail, milk-jug, and
milk-pan. For synonyms see Monosyllable.