Drew milk from an animal like a cow, or unfairly took advantage of someone or something to get as much benefit as possible.
From Old English 'meolcan' or 'milc' (milk), related to Germanic roots. The 'advantage-taking' meaning came much later, probably from the 1600s, comparing extraction of milk to extraction of resources.
Cattle have been humanity's partners for 10,000 years—so ancient is milk's importance that Old English barely changed the word 'milc' for thousands of years, and it appears in nearly every Indo-European language!
Milking (dairy work) historically assigned to women and devalued as unskilled labor despite technical knowledge required; modern dairy still wage-gaps by gender.
When discussing farming/labor, credit skill equally; avoid 'milked' as metaphor for extraction implying victimhood coded feminine.
["extracted","exploited","leveraged"]
Women dairy workers and farmers historically invisible in agricultural narratives; their technical expertise and decision-making power erased.
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