milk snaken. Any of various subspecies of the king snake Lampropeltis triangulum, ranging from the eastern and central United States south to Ecuador and often having red, black, and yellow or white bands. Also called house snake, milk adder.[From the folk belief that the snakes (which are commonly seen around the barns where they hunt rodents) suck milk from cows.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.milk snake n (Animals) a nonvenomous brown-and-grey North American colubrid snake Lampropeltis doliata, related to the king snakes Collins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014milk? snake` n. any of numerous, usu. brightly marked king snakes of the subspecies Lampropeltis triangulum (doliata), of North America. [1790?1800] Random House Kernerman Webster’s College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.