English
cream
Etymology

From Middle English creime, creme, from Old French creme, cresme, blend of Late Latin chrisma (from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα), and Late Latin crāmum, from Gaulish *crama (compare Welsh cramen, Breton crammen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krama- (compare Middle Irish screm, Dutch schram, Lithuanian kramas).

Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" appears from 1581.

Pronunciation Noun

cream

  1. The butterfat/milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.
    Take 100 ml of cream and 50 grams of sugar…
    1. (standard of identity, US) The liquid separated from milk, possibly with certain other milk products added, and with at least eighteen percent of it milkfat.
      • 2018 February 13, Rebecca Firsker, "What's Really in Oreo Cream Filling? Well, for One Thing, Not Cream" ↗, MyRecipes:
        You may have noticed that any time that filling is mentioned on Oreo packaging, it's called "creme." This is no typo. Technically, the creamy filling inside an Oreo is not cream at all: The recipe used actually contains no dairy; as such, the FDA prohibits Nabisco from labeling the product as "cream."
    2. (standard of identity, UK) The liquid separated from milk containing at least 18 percent milkfat (48% for double cream).
    3. (tea and coffee) A portion of cream, such as the amount found in a creamer.
      I take my coffee with two cream and three sugar.
  2. A yellowish white colour; the colour of cream.
     
  3. (informal) Frosting, custard, creamer or another substance similar to the oily part of milk or to whipped cream.
  4. (figuratively) The best part of something.
    the cream of the crop
    the cream of a collection of books or pictures
    • 1612, Thomas Shelton (translator) (translator), Don Quixote (originally by Miguel de Cervantes)
      Welcome, O flower and cream of Knights-errant.
    • 1918 August, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Bliss”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC ↗, page 124 ↗:
      “But the cream of it was," said Norman, pressing a large tortoiseshell-rimmed monocle into his eye, “you don't mind me telling this, Face, do you?”
    • 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 4 ↗:
      […] he can assure the assembled Deans that all this is true, and that the Academy has presently in residence no fewer than a third of the continent’s top thirty juniors, in age brackets all across the board, and that I here, who go by ‘Hal,’ usually, am ‘right up there among the very cream.’
  5. (medicine) A viscous aqueous oil/fat emulsion with a medicament added, used to apply that medicament to the skin. (compare with ointment)
    You look really sunburnt; you should apply some cream.
    • 1756, Oliver Goldsmith, The Double Transformation:
      In vain she tries her paste and creams, / To smooth her skin or hide its seams.
  6. (vulgar, slang) Semen.
    • 2001, Darwin Porter, Hollywood’s Silent Closet: The Lusty Saga of America’s First Star F*#%er!![sic] (novel),[http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=03EnBNNsR88C ] Blood Moon Productions, Ltd., ISBN 0-9668030-2-7, page 155,
      He rode me for ten—or was it fifteen?—minutes before one final fuckthrust that filled me completely with his cream.
  7. (obsolete) The chrism or consecrated oil used in anointing ceremonies.
    • 1470–1485 (date produced), Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London: […] by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC ↗; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: David Nutt, […], 1889, →OCLC ↗:
      , Book V:
      there shall never harlot have happe, by the helpe of Oure Lord, to kylle a crowned Kynge that with Creyme is anoynted.
Synonyms Translations Translations Translations Translations Translations Adjective

cream (not comparable)

  1. Cream-coloured; having a yellowish white colour.
Synonyms Translations Verb

cream (creams, present participle creaming; simple past and past participle creamed)

  1. (transitive) To puree, to blend with a liquifying process.
    Cream the vegetables with the olive oil, flour, salt and water mixture.
  2. (transitive) To turn a yellowish white color; to give something the color of cream.
  3. (transitive, slang) To obliterate, to defeat decisively.
    We creamed the opposing team!
  4. (intransitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate (used of either gender).
    • 1971, Jim Jacobs, Warren Casey, “Grease Lightnin’”, in Grease:
      Danny Zuko: You are supreme / The chicks’ll cream / For grease lightning.
  5. (transitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate in (clothing or a bodily orifice).
  6. (transitive, cooking) To rub, stir, or beat (butter) into a light creamy consistency.
  7. (transitive) To skim, or take off by skimming, as cream.
  8. (transitive, figurative) To take off the best or choicest part of.
  9. (transitive) To furnish with, or as if with, cream.
    Please cream these two coffees and leave the others black.
    • 1871, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Real Folks:
      creaming the fragrant cups
  10. (intransitive) To gather or form cream.
Translations Translations

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