to cream the crop
- idiom
- Informal
:
seleccionar lo mejor
- The coach will cream the crop of players from this season to form the final team.
Examples
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In this competition, judges will cream the crop of designs to award the top prize.
-
And you know, I mean, you had to be kind of cream the crop to sort of, sort of get in there.
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Only those who excelled in their projects will be creamed the crop for the scholarship.
Synonyms
823
2.5
To choose someone or something from a group
23
6.3
To choose only the best people or things for yourself
8
8.3
To choose the most important parts from a larger group
1
7.1
To choose the best items from a larger group and remove them
1
4.6
Take the best people or things from a group, leaving the rest behind
To take the best people or things from a group for themselves
To take only the best or most profitable choices and leave others behind
How Selective
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to select the best' is partially inferable because 'cream' (the top items) combined with 'crop' (a group) suggests taking the top members from the group. However the established idiom is 'cream of the crop' and the verb-like construction 'cream the crop' is less typical and somewhat idiomatic, so a B1 learner who knows the words might still fail to predict the exact verbal meaning without prior exposure.
Etymology
Cream the crop comes from the simple picture of cream rising to the top of milk so people could skim off the best part, with crop meaning a harvest or batch; one popular image is of taking the top, richest part from a group. So it means 'to select the best individuals or items'.