# cream the crop

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/cream-the-crop
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

To pick out the most valuable or desirable things or people from a group for one's own interests.

## Examples

- They always cream the crop when hiring new staff.
- The university scouts travel across the country to cream the crop of talented young athletes for their team.
- By offering the most generous scholarships, the prestigious institution manages to cream the crop of students, leaving fewer top-tier candidates for the smaller colleges.

## Origin

Derived from the phrase cream of the crop, an expression first appearing in the early 19th century to identify the most desirable portion of a collective. The term cream entered English from Old French cresme, itself from Late Latin cramum, used to denote the richest part of the milk that naturally rises to the surface. By the 17th century, the substance had become a standard metaphor for the social or intellectual elite, and the subsequent addition of crop—a term for the seasonal harvest—provided the complete agricultural idiom. The contemporary verb form is a late 20th-century truncation of this earlier noun phrase.

---

From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.