cream
UK /kɹiːm/ · US /kɹim/ noun, adjective, verb
Forms creams creaming creamed creme creyme
- noun The butterfat or 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…”
- noun (standards of identity, US) The liquid separated from milk, possibly with certain other milk products added, and with at least eighteen percent of it milkfat.
- noun (standards of identity, UK) The liquid separated from milk containing at least 18 percent milkfat (48% for double cream).
- noun (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.”
- noun A yellowish white color; the color of cream.
- noun (informal) Frosting, custard, creamer, or another substance similar to the oily part of milk or to whipped cream.
- noun A dish prepared through creaming, particularly cream of
- noun (figuratively) The best part of something. “the cream of the crop”
- adjective Cream-coloured; having a yellowish white colour.
- verb (transitive) To puree, to blend with a liquifying process. “Cream the vegetables with the olive oil, flour, salt and water mixture.”
- verb (transitive) To turn a yellowish white color; to give something the color of cream.
- verb (transitive, slang) To obliterate, to defeat decisively. “We creamed the opposing team!”
- verb (intransitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate or become wet (used of either gender).
- verb (intransitive, vulgar, slang, by extension) To be very enthusiastic about or attracted to something (used especially of women).
- verb (transitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate in (clothing or a bodily orifice).
- verb (transitive, cooking) To rub, stir, or beat (butter) into a light creamy consistency.
- verb (transitive) To skim, or take off by skimming, as cream.
Synonyms
crème ream pick ointment emollient bat clobber drub thrash lick skim skim off cream off
Etymology
From Middle English creime, creme, from Old French creme, cresme, blend of Late Latin chrisma (“ointment”) (from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα (khrîsma, “unguent”)), and Late Latin crāmum (“cream”), from Gaulish *crama (compare Welsh cramen (“scab, skin”), Breton crammen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krama- (compare Middle Irish screm (“surface, skin”), Dutch schram (“abrasion”), Lithuanian kramas (“scurf”)). Doublet of crema and crème. Displaced native Old English rēam (“cream”) (> modern ream).
Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" appears from 1581. Verb meaning "to beat, thrash, wreck" is 1929, U.S. colloquial. The U.S. standard of identity is from 21 CFR 131.3(a).
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun The part of any liquor that rises, and collects on the surface.
- verb To skim, or take off by skimming, as cream.
- verb To take off the best or choicest part of.
Etymology [F. cr, perh. fr. LL. crema cteam of milk; cf. L. cremor thick juice or broth, perh. akin to cremare to burn.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cream”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details