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cream puff

cream puff

4 3.0
A small light pastry filled with sweet cream or custard
  • noun
  • /kriːm pʌf/
translation icon : profiterol
  • For dessert, we enjoyed fluffy cream puffs filled with sweet whipped cream and dusted with powdered sugar.
  • chocolate cream puffs
  • cream puffs with chocolate sauce
  • make cream puffs

Examples

  • My husband had the onion soup, which was his favorite, though the cream puff was mine.

    Blog text (14)
  • Cherry pies, cream puffs, ice cream, treacle tarts.

  • There are cream puffs at the end of the line.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • My sister had talked about the cream puffs for years, always wanting to go back for more.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I got some cream puffs and some animal crackers and some milk and stuff.

  • Inside were two deluxe chocolate cream puffs.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • I made extra cream puffs and went heavy on the use of purple sprinkles today in the bakery where I work.

    Blog text (5)
  • He had bought four chocolate cream puffs for the whole family, even though they had cost two dollars apiece.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • He went to a pastry shop run by another Spaniard in the neighborhood and bought some cream puffs.

    Academic text (2007)
  • Warren, who roved to glut, gazed in absolute adoration at her crepes, casseroles, and cream puffs.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

puff
vscream puff
37 2.3

A light hollow pastry often filled with cream

is the hollow sweet often topped and filled with cream or custard
chou
vscream puff
9.9

A small round pastry filled with sweet cream that is light and airy

is the hollow sweet often topped and filled with cream or custard

How Sweet

cream puff
4 3.0
Twinkie
9 3.4
cupcake
269 1.0
muffin
295 1.0

Surface Forms

cream puff singular
cream puffs plural

Morphology

cream + puff

The compound is transparently built from 'cream' (a dairy filling) + 'puff' (a light hollow pastry), so its meaning — a light pastry filled with cream — is directly inferable from the constituents. This noun–noun composition is a common, literal naming pattern (and has clear parallels in many languages), making it immediately understandable to a B1 learner who knows both words.

Etymology

Cream puff comes from the pastry's look: a light, airy puff filled with cream. So the name simply describes the food as a 'soft', hollow pastry filled with cream.