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Glite Dictionary
🥄 To skim 🏆 To take the best
to cream off

to cream off

7.2
To take the best people or things from a group for themselves
  • phrasal verb
  • /krim ɔf/
translation icon : quitar lo mejor
  • After the auditions, the director creamed off the best actors for the leading roles in the play.

Examples

  • The company tends to cream off the most skilled engineers for its most important projects.

  • In the selection process, they usually cream off the top performers to ensure the team excels.

  • And so you're getting the cream already of people that want to teach and can teach for the most part.

Synonyms

to cherry-pick
vsto cream off
  • Informal
23 6.3

To choose only the best people or things for yourself

is about taking the best from a group to gain advantage
to skim off
vsto cream off
1 4.6

Take the best people or things from a group, leaving the rest behind

is focused on removing top choices specifically for personal advantage
cream-skimming
vsto cream off
  • Jargon
8.8

Choosing only the best or most valuable customers and leaving the rest

is the act of removing prime people or things for advantage
to cream-skim
vsto cream off
  • Jargon
7.8

To take only the best or most profitable choices and leave others behind

is about removing the best choices to benefit certain people
to cream the crop
vsto cream off
  • Informal
8.5

To choose the best people or things from a group

is similar but may lack the selfish advantage focus

How Selective

to cream off
7.2
to select
823 2.5
to choose
∞ 1.0

Surface Forms

cream off infinitive
creamed off past
creamed off past participle
creaming off present participle
creams off third person singular

Morphology

cream + off

The phrase derives from the literal image of skimming the cream (the desirable top layer) plus 'off' meaning removing, so there is a clear compositional link to taking away the best items. However, mapping that physical image to selecting the "best people/things" is a metaphorical extension (cream = "the best") that may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.

Etymology

Cream off is like skimming milk: someone takes the rich cream from the top and leaves the rest. That's why it also means 'to take the best people or things from a group'.