Milkshakes originated in the United States around the turn of the 20th century, and grew in popularity following the introduction of electric blenders in the subsequent two decades.

Full-service restaurants, ice cream shops, soda fountains, and diners usually prepare the shake in a milkshake machine.

By the 1930s, milkshakes were a popular drink at malt shops, which were the "typical soda fountain of the period ... used by students as a meeting place or hangout".

Before the widespread availability of electric blenders, milkshake-type drinks were more like eggnog, or they were a hand-shaken mixture of crushed ice and milk, sugar, and flavorings.

In 1922, Walgreens employee Ivar "Pop" Coulson made a milkshake by adding two scoops of vanilla ice cream to the standard malted milk drink recipe.

[16] The automation of milkshakes developed in the 1930s, after the invention of freon-cooled refrigerators provided a safe, reliable way of automatically making and dispensing ice cream.

In 1936, inventor Earl Prince used the basic concept behind the Freon-cooled automated ice cream machine to develop the Multimixer, a "five-spindled mixer that could produce five milkshakes at once, all automatically, and dispense them at the pull of a lever into awaiting paper cups".

"[18] By the 1950s, popular places to drink milkshakes were Woolworth's "5 & 10" lunch counters, diners, burger joints, and drugstore soda fountains.

In Australia, milk bars had grown popular and milkshakes were normally served lightly whipped and often in the aluminum or stainless steel cups in which they were prepared.

Christopher Muller, the director of the Center for Multi-Unit Restaurant Management at Orlando's University of Central Florida said that "milkshakes remind us of summer, youth – and indulgence", and "they're evocative of a time gone by".

[24] In May 2019, during the build-up to the EU parliament elections in the United Kingdom, the throwing of milkshakes emerged as a protest tactic, usually targeting right-wing politicians.

[31] Filmmakers sometimes utilize milkshakes as a visual shorthand for themes of purity, innocence, and uncorrupted youth, representing them as embodiments of 'sweetness and goodness.

[32] In All About Eve, by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Bette Davis's character is unhappy to see a man she likes chatting up her young female assistant, so Davis's character orders an alcoholic Martini, and "then mockingly suggests [that] Eve [the young assistant] will have a milkshake", thereby "asserting womanhood over girlhood through milkshake's associations with virginity".

[32] Similarly, the socially awkward character Steve Buscemi plays in Ghost World is made fun of by a teenage girl because he orders a "virginal vanilla milkshake"; in Manhattan, by director Woody Allen, the director draws attention to the difference in age between his 42-year-old character (he also acts in the lead role) and his teenage girlfriend by having her drink a milkshake.

[33] Master Shake, one of the main characters from the American animated series Aqua Teen Hunger Force (also known by various alternative titles), is a life-sized anthropomorphic milkshake.

[35] The term Milkshake Duck, coined on Twitter in 2017, refers to a person who initially becomes popular on social media, only to become disgraced as other users comb through their online presence and find offensive statements or an unpleasant history.