cream

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

cream

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• creme (14th century onwards)
• creyme (14th-15th centuries)

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).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kɹiːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

cream (countable and uncountable, plural creams)

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. (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.
      • 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. (standards 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.

   cream:  

   • 1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, page 253:

     Hundreds of examples remain, still following the same general pattern—maroon, green or chocolate brown, for example, from ground to waist level, then a stale Cheddar cheese shade of cream above.

3. (informal) Frosting, custard, creamer, or another substance similar to the oily part of milk or to whipped cream.
   • 2004, Joey Green, Joey Green's Incredible Country Store, Rodale, →ISBN, page 267:

     Originally the cream filling in Oreo cookies was made with pork lard.

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), 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!! (novel), Blood Moon Productions, Ltd., →ISBN, page 155,

     He rode me for ten—or was it fifteen?—minutes before one final fuckthrust that filled me completely with his cream.

   • 2003, Dominique Adair, “Two Days, Three Nights”, in Tied with a Bow, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, →ISBN, page 74:

     He tucked his cock into his pants before rubbing his cream into her breasts in slow, teasing strokes.

   • 2004, Art Wiederhold, Wild Flowers‎, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 158:

     When he did come, he spurted his cream all over the front of Rosalee’s T-shirt and neck.

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), by William Caxton], published 31 July 1485, →OCLC; republished as H 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

• crème, creme
• ream

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Chinese: 忌廉, 淇淋 (qílín)
• → Hindi: क्रीम (krīm)
• → Indonesian: krim
• → Japanese: クリーム (kurīmu)
• → Korean: 크림 (keurim)
• → Swahili: krimu
• → Thai: ครีม (kriim)
• → Zulu: ukhilimu

Translations

Adjective

cream (not comparable)

1. Cream-coloured; having a yellowish white colour.

Synonyms

• crème, creme

Translations

Verb

cream (third-person singular simple present creams, present participle creaming, simple past and past participle creamed)

1. To puree, to blend with a liquifying process.

   Cream the vegetables with the olive oil, flour, salt and water mixture.

2. To turn a yellowish white colour; to give something the color of cream.
3. (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.
   • 1871, Adeline Dutton Train Whitney, Real Folks:

     creaming the fragrant cups

10. (intransitive) To gather or form cream.

Derived terms

Translations

Related terms

See also

Anagrams

• Carme, McRae, crame, crema, macer, recam

Chinese

Etymology

From English cream.

Pronunciation

Noun

cream

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) face cream; hand cream

   搽cream [Cantonese]  ―  caa⁴ kwim¹   ―  to apply face cream

2. (Hong Kong Cantonese) cream; whipped cream

References

• Bauer, Robert S. (2021) ABC Cantonese-English Comprehensive Dictionary, Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page 548

Galician

Verb

cream

1. (reintegrationist norm, less recommended) inflection of crer:
   1. third-person plural present subjunctive
   2. third-person plural imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

Verb

cream

1. first-person singular/plural imperfect of crea