A dictionary of Confusable Phrases: More Than 10,000 Idioms and Collocations

milk the pigeon • pigeon milk
milk the pigeon —(dated) attempt the impossible: “Why have
you come here if only to fall into a brown study?” “I am sorry.
I promised to do a favor for Miss Ravenhurst but I fear I’m
only milking the pigeon.”
pigeon milk —(also: pigeon’s milk) 
1
. the partly-digested food
with which pigeons feed their young: Pigeons feed the young
ones from the protein-rich “pigeon milk,” a curd formed in
the parent bird’s gut. 2. (dated) said of an imaginary article
for which children are sent on a fool’s errand: Boys and novices
are frequently sent on the first of April to buy pigeon’s milk.
Note: 
The expression does not correlate in meaning with the
phrase mouse milk—(coll.) anything that delivers little payoff
while requiring lots of hard work: When Carl said that making
this stuff was mouse milk, what he meant was: it takes a hell
of a lot of whatever they use to make it out of to make a little
bit.
minced meat • mincemeat
minced meat—meat cut or chopped into small pieces: The
first mouthful brought the tears trickling down my cheeks. It
was red pepper, stuffed with minced meat.
mincemeat—
1
. a mixture of currants, raisins, sugar, apples,
candied peel, etc. used in pies: My wife makes her own mince-
meat and her own plum-puddings. 2. (U.S.) = minced meat:
Mincemeat often contains raw animal suet, so always store
any uncooked mincemeat in the fridge and don’t be tempted
to taste it before cooking.
miss out on something • miss out something
miss out on something —lose an opportunity to benefit from
smth.: You may miss out on some of the latest company gos-
sip.
miss out something —omit or fail to include smth. in a doc-
ument, etc.: You can miss out a comma because you’re writing
too quickly.