a disease of humans, formerly common in some parts of the Middle West, caused by consuming milk from cattle that have been poisoned by eating certain kinds of snakeroot.
Origin
1815-25, Americanism
Examples from the web for milk sickness
In the early days of the country, cows would eat it and it would get into their milk, creating what's called milk sickness.
One theory was that they brought the cattle up on the balds to get them away from the snakeroots which cause milk sickness.
Settlers of the period were unfamiliar with the cause of milk sickness.
British Dictionary definitions for milk sickness
milk sickness
noun
1.
an acute disease characterized by weakness, vomiting, and constipation, caused by ingestion of the flesh or dairy products of cattle affected with trembles
milk sicknessn. An acute, now rare disease characterized by trembling, vomiting, and severe intestinal pain, caused by eating dairy products or meat from a cow that has fed on white snakeroot.