Dictionary

spilt milk en · NOUN

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, uncountable) Something that cannot be undone.
   • Even looking back is foolish—that's just spilt milk. You've got just two possibilities: stop dead in your tracks, or go on. 1950, Nancy Wilson Ross, I, My Ancestor, Random House, page 389:
   • It is not only lost, but in its spilling stains and spoils gown or carpet, and should it fall upon the bare ground, can add nothing to the producing powers of the earth; it is always just spilt milk, and not worth crying over. 1897, Harper's Bazaar - Volume 30, Issues 27-52, Hearst Corporation, page 892:
   • I don't know. We'll probably never discover it. Let it go. It's just spilt milk. All water under the bridge. 1997, Carol Dawson, Meeting the Minotaur, Algonquin Books, →ISBN, page 62:
   • One might wish that Bruckner had stood up absolutely to these well-meaning, unscrupulous, and not impressively talented students of his, but that would mean entirely remodeling his personality — and thus, surely, his music. In any event, it is a matter now of spilt milk. 1995, Michael Steinberg, The Symphony: A Listener's Guide, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 98:

Forms

Relateds

there's no point crying over spilt milk · point of no return · cry over spilt milk · the die is cast

Translations (4)

pt leite derramado (something that cannot be undone) · pl rozlane mleko (something that cannot be undone) · nl gedane zaken (something that cannot be undone) · fi kaatunut maito (something that cannot be undone)