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milk of human kindness. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
milk of human kindness, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
milk of human kindness in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
First used by Shakespeare in Macbeth (see quotations).
Noun
milk of human kindness (uncountable)
- (idiomatic) Compassion shown to other people.
c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 134, column 1:Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be / What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature; / It is too full o’ th’ milk of human kindness / To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great, / Art not without ambition, but without / The illness should attend it.
References
- ^ “milk of human kindness”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present, reproduced from E. D. Hirsch Jr.; Joseph F. Kett; James Trefil, The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2002, →ISBN.