A cash cow is a product, business or service that brings in steady profit without much investment. It's an ordinary business expression: reports and news use it for a company's most profitable product. It's usually neutral, though it can be critical too: treat students as cash cows.
When would you say cash cow?
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a cash cow (for + company/person); be someone's cash cow; treat + someone + as a cash cow
- The coffee machine is the café's cash cow: everyone buys a latte on the way to work.
- For the publisher, the exam guides became a cash cow that paid for new books.
- Some universities treat foreign students as cash cows and keep raising their fees.
What changed
First versionThis app has become the company's milk cow.
RevisionThis app has become the company's cash cow.
Milk cow is understood literally, as a cow on a farm. Only cash cow has the figurative meaning, with cash meaning money.
Criticism more often comes from the verb milk, to get as much as possible out of something, sometimes unfairly: The studio milked the franchise with five weak sequels. So cash cow talks about the income, and milk about how it's squeezed out.
Your turn
Their phone cases cost almost nothing to make but bring in a steady profit every year. They're the firm's ___.
Show the answer
cash cow — The cases cost almost nothing to make and bring in profit year after year, so they're a cash cow. Milk cow is a real cow, and people don't use it about business.
Describe a product or service that brings someone most of their profit. Name the company or place and explain why it's so profitable.
For our local cinema, popcorn is the real cash cow, because it costs very little and sells at every show.
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