if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll always ask for a glass of milk
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Giving someone something will lead to them asking for more
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Khi cho ai đó một thứ gì đó, họ sẽ yêu cầu thêm
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a mouse asking for milk after being given a cookie
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll always ask for a glass of milk” mean?
Giving someone something will lead to them asking for more Literally: a mouse asking for milk after being given a cookie
Is “if you give a mouse a cookie, he'll always ask for a glass of milk” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.