Name: What does 'milk it' mean?
Uploaded: 2025-09-22T21:01:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 1 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

But I am THE Rob - Rob of The English We Speak.

Oh, I seem to have pulled a muscle. That hurts.

Ouch, it's in my lower back. It's so painful, I don't know if I can carry on.

Everything! "To milk it" means to take full advantage of a situation usually to gain sympathy, respect, or kindness.

Sometimes, like Rob, you fake something to get attention.

Of course I am, Rob. Let's hear some examples of other people "milking it."

OK, don't milk it, Sam! You've told me a hundred times you've got tickets for the World Cup final.

Tom's had a week off work with a cold. I think he's milking it now.

Since her promotion, Freya keeps bossing us around and telling us to call her "Miss Brown." She's really milking it!

You're listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we're talking about the phrase "to milk it."

This means to take full advantage of a situation usually to gain sympathy, respect, or kindness.

So Rob, have you got what "milking it'" means?

I do, and I seemed to have recovered from my pulled muscle, but I've become so thirsty, I was wondering...

No, Feifei. I was thinking more of a cup of coffee. You are so very kind and generous.

Actually, I've got just the thing for you.

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