dairy

Origin 1250–1300 (Middle English daierie and other forms), from dey (“dairymaid”) +‎ -ery.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛə.ɹi/
• (General American)
  • (Mary–marry–merry distinction) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛɚ.i/
  • (Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛɹ.i/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  (Mary–marry–merry merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛəɹi

dairy (countable and uncountable, plural dairies)

1. A place, often on a farm, where milk is processed and turned into products such as butter and cheese.

   Go and fetch the butter from the dairy.

2. A dairy farm.
3. A shop selling dairy products.

   Can you go and buy some yoghurt and blue cheese from the dairy?

   Synonym: milkhouse

   Synonym: milkery (rare)

4. (New Zealand) A corner store, superette or minimart.
5. (slang, vulgar, chiefly in the plural) A woman's breast.
   • 2011, Kate Moore, To Seduce an Angel:

     Her dairies as Wallop had called them were on display, or at least as much of them as she and Ruth could not contrive to cover.

6. (uncountable) (also dairy products or dairy produce) Products produced from milk.
   • 2023 May 14, Alix Strauss, “How the Head of a Filmmaking Center Spends His Sundays”, in The New York Times‎:

     My routine changed in February because I stopped alcohol, caffeine and dairy. Normally, I would have drunk a strong beer before I went to bed and made an espresso in the morning. It’s boring now but healthier.

dairy (not comparable)

1. Referring to products produced from milk.
   1. (specifically) Referring to products produced from animal milk as opposed to non-milk substitutes.

      Is this milk dairy or soy?

2. Referring to the milk production and processing industries.
3. (British) On food labelling, containing fats only from dairy sources (e.g. dairy ice cream).

• dairy cake
• nondairy

• “dairy”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• (woman's breast): 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary

• diary, riyad, yaird