Med. Also 6–7 -a. [L. colostrum (also colostra fem. sing., and neuter pl.)] The first milk secreted by a mammal after parturition; the ‘beestings’ or ‘green milk.’
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., III. (1586), 139 b. You must be sure to milke out the first milke called Colostra … for this, except some quantity be drawen out, doth hurt the Lambe.
1598. Florio, Colostra, the first milke that commeth in the teates after a birth in woman or beast.
1839. Todd, Cycl. Anat., III. 360/2. Colostrum … differs somewhat from ordinary milk.
1876. Foster, Phys., II. v. (1879), 398. The colostrum, or secretion of the mammary gland at the beginning of lactation.
b. attrib. and Comb., as colostrum-corpuscle, -globule, etc.
1874. A. Flint, Phys. Man, III. 104. A moderate quantity of colostrum, containing … milk-globules and a number of colostrum-corpuscles.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Colostrum corpuscles, are leucocytes or small masses of protoplasm, which appear to be the secreting cells of the gland.
Hence Colostric a. (cf. F. colostrique), of or pertaining to the colostrum. Colostrous a., having colostrum, full of colostrum.
1860. Mayne, Expos. Lex., Colostric Fluid … popularly termed green milk. Ibid., Colostrous.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex.
