cream   (krēm)    n.   The yellowish fatty component of unhomogenized milk that tends to accumulate at the surface. Any of various substances resembling or containing cream: hand cream. A pale yellow to yellowish white. The choicest part: the cream of the crop. v.   creamed, cream·ing, creams v.   intr. To form cream. To form foam or froth at the top. v.   tr. To remove the cream from; skim. To take or remove (the best part): creamed off the highest-paying jobs for her cronies. To take the best part from: creamed the whole department to form his management team. To defeat overwhelmingly: creamed our rival on their home court. To damage severely; destroy: My camera got creamed when I dropped it. To beat into a creamy consistency. To prepare or cook in or with a cream sauce. To add cream to. Slang To defeat overwhelmingly: creamed our rival on their home court. To damage severely; destroy: My camera got creamed when I dropped it. [Middle English creme, from Old French craime (from Late Latin crāmum, of Celtic origin) and from Old French cresme (from Latin chrīsma, an anointing, from Greek khrīsma, unguent, from khrīein, to anoint; see ghrēi- in Indo-European roots).] cream adj.

Cream

Cream\ (kr[=e]m), n. [F. cr[^e]me, perh. fr. LL. crema cream of milk; cf. L. cremor thick juice or broth, perh. akin to cremare to burn.]

1. The rich, oily, and yellowish part of milk, which, when the milk stands unagitated, rises, and collects on the surface. It is the part of milk from which butter is obtained.

2. The part of any liquor that rises, and collects on the surface. [R.]

3. A delicacy of several kinds prepared for the table from cream, etc., or so as to resemble cream.

4. A cosmetic; a creamlike medicinal preparation.

In vain she tries her paste and creams, To smooth her skin or hide its seams. --Goldsmith.

5. The best or choicest part of a thing; the quintessence; as, the cream of a jest or story; the cream of a collection of books or pictures.

Welcome, O flower and cream of knights errant. --Shelton.

Bavarian cream, a preparation of gelatin, cream, sugar, and eggs, whipped; -- to be eaten cold.

Cold cream, an ointment made of white wax, almond oil, rose water, and borax, and used as a salve for the hands and lips.

Cream cheese, a kind of cheese made from curd from which the cream has not been taken off, or to which cream has been added.

Cream gauge, an instrument to test milk, being usually a graduated glass tube in which the milk is placed for the cream to rise.

Cream nut, the Brazil nut.

Cream of lime. (a) A scum of calcium carbonate which forms on a solution of milk of lime from the carbon dioxide of the air. (b) A thick creamy emulsion of lime in water.

Cream of tartar (Chem.), purified tartar or argol; so called because of the crust of crystals which forms on the surface of the liquor in the process of purification by recrystallization. It is a white crystalline substance, with a gritty acid taste, and is used very largely as an ingredient of baking powders; -- called also potassium bitartrate, acid potassium tartrate, etc.

cream 

Main Entry: cream
Pronunciation: 'krEm
Function: noun
1 : the yellowish part of milk containing from 18 to about 40 percent butterfat
2 : something having the consistency of cream; especially : a usually emulsified medicinal or cosmetic preparation —creamy /'krE-mE/ adjective

cream (krēm)
n.

1. The yellowish fatty component of unhomogenized milk that tends to accumulate at the surface.
2. A pharmaceutical preparation consisting of a semisolid emulsion of either the oil-in-water or the water-in-oil type, ordinarily intended for topical use.