cream of the crop

noun

the fatty part of milk, which rises to the surface when the liquid is allowed to stand unless homogenized.

a soft solid or thick liquid containing medicaments or other specific ingredients, applied externally for a prophylactic, therapeutic, or cosmetic purpose.

Usually, creams. a soft-centered confection of fondant or fudge coated with chocolate.

a purée or soup containing cream or milk: cream of tomato soup.

the best part of anything: the cream of society.

a yellowish white; light tint of yellow or buff.

verb (used without object)

to form cream.

to froth; foam.

Informal. to advance or favor only the wealthiest, most skilled or talented, etc., especially so as to reap the benefits oneself: Management is creaming by advancing only the most productive workers.

10.

Also, cream one's jeans. Slang: Vulgar.

to have an orgasm, especially to ejaculate or experience glandular lubrication of the vagina.

to be overcome, as in rapturous admiration or delight.

00:10

Cream of the crop is always a great word to know.

So is ninnyhammer. Does it mean:

a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.

a fool or simpleton; ninny.

LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...

verb (used with object)

11.

to work (butter and sugar, or the like) to a smooth, creamy mass.

12.

to prepare (chicken, oysters, vegetables, etc.) with cream, milk, or a cream sauce.

13.

to allow (milk) to form cream.

14.

to skim (milk).

15.

to separate as cream.

16.

to take the cream or best part of.

17.

to use a cosmetic cream on.

18.

to add cream to (tea, coffee, etc.).

19.

Slang.

to beat or damage severely; lambaste.

to defeat decisively.

to accomplish, especially to pass (a test or course), with great ease and success: She creamed the math test, getting the highest grade in the class.

adjective

20.

of the color cream; cream-colored.

Idioms

21.

cream of the crop, the best or choicest: a college that accepts only students who are the cream of the crop.

Origin:
1300–50; Middle English creme < Anglo-French, Old French cresme < Late Latin chrīsma chrism

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Link To cream of the crop

Collins

World English Dictionary

cream (kriːm)

—n
1.	a. the fatty part of milk, which rises to the top if the milk is allowed to stand
	b. (as modifier): cream buns
2.	anything resembling cream in consistency: shoe cream; beauty cream
3.	the best one or most essential part of something; pick: the cream of the bunch; the cream of the joke
4.	a soup containing cream or milk: cream of chicken soup
5.	any of various dishes, cakes, biscuits, etc, resembling or containing cream
6.	a confection made of fondant or soft fudge, often covered in chocolate
7.	cream sherry a full-bodied sweet sherry
8.	a. a yellowish-white colour
	b. (as adjective): cream wallpaper

—vb (sometimes foll by off)
9.	(tr) to skim or otherwise separate the cream from (milk)
10.	(tr) to beat (foodstuffs, esp butter and sugar) to a light creamy consistency
11.	(intr) to form cream
12.	(tr) to add or apply cream or any creamlike substance to: to cream one's face; to cream coffee
13.	to take away the best part of
14.	(tr) to prepare or cook (vegetables, chicken, etc) with cream or milk
15.	to allow (milk) to form a layer of cream on its surface or (of milk) to form such a layer
16.	slang chiefly (US), (Canadian), (Austral) (tr) to beat thoroughly
17.	slang (intr) (of a man) to ejaculate during orgasm

[C14: from Old French cresme, from Late Latin crāmum cream, of Celtic origin; influenced by Church Latin chrisma unction, chrism]

'creamlike

—*adj*

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon

Main Entry:	cream of the crop
Part of Speech:	n phr
Definition:	the very best from a selection or group
Example:	That tomato sauce is considered to be the cream of the crop.
Etymology:	from cream's rising to the top of fresh milk

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

cream

early 14c., from O.Fr. cresme, blend of L.L. chrisma "ointment" (from Gk. chrisma "unguent"), and L.L. cramum "cream," perhaps from Gaulish. Replaced O.E. ream. Re-borrowed from Fr. 19c., as creme. Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" is from 1580s. Verb meaning "to beat, thrash, wreck"

is 1929, U.S. colloquial. Related: Creamy (c.1600). Cream-cheese is from 1580s. Creampuff, in fig. sense of "weakling, sissy" is recorded from 1930s.

"I remember my first campaign. My opponent called me a cream puff. That's what he said. Well, I rushed out and got the baker's union to endorse me." [Sen. Claiborne Pell, D-R.I., 1987]

As a salesman's word, "something that is a tremendous bargain," it is from 1940s.

American Heritage

Medical Dictionary

cream (krēm)
n.

The yellowish fatty component of unhomogenized milk that tends to accumulate at the surface.
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.

Slang Dictionary

cream definition

tv.
to beat someone; to outscore someone. : The other team creamed us, but we had better team spirit.
semen. (Usually objectionable.) : His father found some cream in the john and went into a purple rage.
in. & tv.
to ejaculate [semen]. (See cream (in)one's pants.) : He creamed right on the floor.

Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Matching Quote

"And, by the way, who estimates the value of the crop which nature yields in the still wilder fields unimproved by man? The crop of English hay is carefully weighed, the moisture calculated, the silicates and the potash; but in all dells and pond-holes in the woods and pastures and swamps grows a rich and various crop only unreaped by man."

-Henry David Thoreau

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