Can I say "the cows were all milked dry or out"?

[danial2007]

hi all

can i say "the cows were all milked out." ?
dose it have the same meaning with "the cows were all milked dry"?

thank you

[Yankee]

Hi Danial

I'm not a specialist on cows, but it seems to me that 'milk out' and 'milk dry' would have similar meanings when referring to milking a cow.

But only 'milk dry' would be used figuratively (i.e. referring to something other than a cow).

Amy
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Amy
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ESL teacher, translator, and a native speaker of American English

[Alan]

Hi,

'Milked out' sounds odd to me and almost suggests that the poor cows had overdosed on milk.

A
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Phrasal Verbs/run

[Conchita]

[Mister Micawber]

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I would have thought that 'dry' was the more idiomatic...and indeed it is, except for cows. Dairy websites seem to use 'out' more frequently:

Typically applying the [milking machine] unit to a cow with full letdown allows maximum flow rates to be achieved immediately and milk-out will be rapid.

The Dairymaster milkers stay on and milk the cows out well.

Do not use a cow milking machine. They do not give good service, and in time injure the cow, besides causing them to run dry quicker.

Most cows will milk out in 5 to 7 minutes.

Some cows are slow to milk out. This may occur because they produce more milk than can be removed in 5 minutes, even with maximal removal efficiency. Or, cows may have structural problems with the teat end or inside the udder that makes them milk out slowly.

The animal was milked dry and then fifteen minutes later milked dry again. ... Each was milked dry at 9 a.m. and again at 4 p.m.; at 6 p.m


There is also 'over-milk':

Most people milking cows tend to over-milk the udder.

While it does result in removal of more milk from the quarters, it also results in overmilking and more stress on the gland.

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Ms Google makes it roughly a toss up:

18,800 English pages for "milked dry"
30,000 English pages for "milked out"

You'll notice that the first page of the former is almost all idiomatic, while the first page of the latter is almost all dairy-oriented.
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who teaches English for a living at Mister Micawber's
ESL cafe: Interview with Mister Micawber

[danial2007]

thank all of you for the detailed information!

[prezbucky]

"milked dry" is more common... I can't say I've ever heard the phrase "milked out".

"Milked dry" is also used figuratively, as others (Yankee first) have already said.

I've spent all of the money in my pocket. My funds have been milked dry. (may also put a semicolon between the sentences, in which case the "M" in "My" would be lower-case... of course.)
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