We were uninclined to include the term milk shake in this lexicon because everybody knows what one is. But fountain drinks in New England have a language all their own, and a milk shake in that part of the world is not ice cream, milk, and flavored syrup. Rhode Islanders call that combination of ingredients a cabinet and Yankees farther Downeast know it as a frappe or velvet. If you order a “milk shake” in Rhode Island, you will get milk mixed with flavored syrup, but no ice cream.
To further complicate the issue, if you head west to Buffalo, New York, and order a “frappe” you will get what looks like a sundae. The city’s great ice cream parlors (and they truly are great) list both sundaes and frappes on their menus. Inquiries throughout Buffalo of mixologists and soda jerks about the difference between them yielded only a strong belief that a frappe is an especially exotic sundae.
And P.S.: If you tell someone in Massachusetts you want a “soda,” you will get plain bubbly water. If you want what Midwesterners know as pop, ask for tonic.