Definition
a sweet drink made by mixing milk with chocolate or fruit, and usually ice cream, or a glass of this drink
Origin and usage
The word milkshake combines the word ‘milk’, from the Old English ‘milc’ or ‘meoluc’, and the word ‘shake’, from the Old English ‘sceacan’ meaning ‘move quickly back and forth’. In English, milkshake was first recorded in 1889 but the drink did not become popular until the 1930s.
Examples
Milkshake is a word that refers to a type of sweet, thick drink made with milk, ice cream and other ingredients blended together.
Classic milkshake flavours include vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, but there are hundreds of ways to prepare a milkshake that may appeal to more adventurous eaters. Sweetened dry cereal, toasted coconut or marshmallow, biscuit or cake pieces, fresh fruit, peanut butter and spices like cinnamon and cloves can all be added to create unique milkshake flavours. There are even savoury milkshakes made with ingredients like olive oil, ground sesame seeds or sea salt.
A milkshake is best served very cold, in a large glass with a long, wide straw.
Quotations
“I don’t have sophisticated tastes. I have average tastes. If you looked in my collection of DVDs, you’d see Jaws and Star Wars. In the book library, you’d see John Grisham and Sidney Sheldon. And if you look in my fridge, it’s, like, children’s food – chips, milkshakes, yoghurt.”
(Simon Cowell)
“I remember the fact that milk was delivered every day by a milkman. In summer, my mother would make what now seem in my middle-aged imagination the most delicious iced milkshakes.”
(Simon McBurney)
View the full definition in the Macmillan Dictionary.
