Word.ws English Dictionary

milk before meat

milk before meat phrase: ideas or doctrines that are simpler or easier to accept (should be taught) before more difficult ones.

Phrase

milk before meat

  1. (Mormonism) Ideas or doctrines that are simpler or easier to accept (should be taught) before more difficult ones.
    • Under the pretext of giving the world “milk before meat,” the Utah Mormons have tried to justify themselves in the living of an open lie—they were actually practicing polygamy secretly and denying it publicly.1919, William Earl La Rue, The Foundations of Mormonism: A Study of the Fundamental Facts in the History and Doctrines of the Mormons from Original Sources, page 195
    • They are not to present lessons in calculus to students who must first learn arithmetic; they are not to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom until people believe the first principles: they are to give milk before meat.1980, Bruce R. McConkie, The Mortal Messiah: From Bethlehem to Calvary, volume 2; republished as Rulon T. Burton, editor, We Believe: Doctrines and Principles of the Church of Jesus Christ of...

Examples of milk before meat in a sentence

  • Paul said we should give milk before meat; systematic teaching is effective as long as we are careful to give both the milk and the meat honestly and correctly.1986, Dennis L. Lythgoe, The Sensitive Leader, page 121:
  • So why is it that some people feel that they must know everything right away concerning religion, and yet in daily life they well understand and accept that it’s milk before meat?2006, Jayne P. Bowers, Musings of a Missionary Mom, →ISBN, page 118:

Origin of milk before meat

From 1 Corinthians 3:2, in Koine Greek ἐπότισα γάλα οὐ βρῶμα (epótisa gála ou brôma, “I gave you milk, not meat [or solid food]”), and in a Mormon context Doctrine and Covenants 19:22: “For they cannot bear meat now, but milk they must receive”. In the form milk before meat, first attested in the early 20th century.

Questions about milk before meat

What does milk before meat mean?
Milk before meat means ideas or doctrines that are simpler or easier to accept (should be taught) before more difficult ones.
How do you use milk before meat in a sentence?
Paul said we should give milk before meat; systematic teaching is effective as long as we are careful to give both the milk and the meat honestly and correctly.
What part of speech is milk before meat?
Milk before meat is a phrase.

Words near milk before meat in the dictionary

  1. milk acid
  2. milk albuminate
  3. milk albuminates
  4. milk bar
  5. milk bars
  6. milk before meat
  7. milk bottle
  8. milk bottles
  9. milk bread
  10. milk breads
  11. milk brother

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: milk before meat (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “milk before meat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/milk_before_meat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.