Idiom
upper crust
Meaning
The social elite, the highest social class.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“They act like they belong to the upper crust.”
“The gala was filled with the upper crust of society, all wearing expensive jewelry and designer clothes.”
“Despite his humble beginnings, he spent his entire life trying to gain acceptance among the city's upper crust.”
Examples
simple
“They act like they belong to the upper crust.”
contextual
“The gala was filled with the upper crust of society, all wearing expensive jewelry and designer clothes.”
complex
“Despite his humble beginnings, he spent his entire life trying to gain acceptance among the city's upper crust.”
Origin
The term entered the English lexicon as a figurative expression in 1836. While folk etymology frequently asserts that the phrase derives from the practice of serving the top half of a loaf of bread to the social elite, the historical record for the idiom begins in the early nineteenth century.
Key words
Related idioms
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