cream

• creme (14th century onwards)
• creyme (14th-15th centuries)

From Middle English creime, creme, from Old French creme, cresme, blend of Late Latin chrisma (“ointment”) (from Ancient Greek χρῖσμα (khrîsma, “unguent”)), and Late Latin crāmum (“skim”), from Gaulish *crama (compare Welsh cramen (“scab, skin”), Breton crammen), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)krama- (compare Middle Irish screm (“surface, skin”), Dutch schram (“abrasion”), Lithuanian kramas (“scurf”)). Displaced native Old English rēam (“cream”) (> modern ream). Figurative sense of "most excellent element or part" appears from 1581. Verb meaning "to beat, thrash, wreck" is 1929, U.S. colloquial. The U.S. standard of identity is from 21 CFR 131.3(a).

• IPA^(key): /kɹiːm/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːm

cream (countable and uncountable, plural creams)

1. The butterfat/milkfat part of milk which rises to the top; this part when separated from the remainder.

   Take 100 ml of cream and 50 grams of sugar…

   1. (standards of identity, US) The liquid separated from milk, possibly with certain other milk products added, and with at least eighteen percent of it milkfat.
   2. (standards of identity, Britain) The liquid separated from milk containing at least 18 percent milkfat (48% for double cream).
2. A yellowish white colour; the colour of cream.

   cream colour:  

3. (informal) Frosting, custard, creamer, or another substance similar to the oily part of milk or to whipped cream.
   • 2004, Joey Green, Joey Green's Incredible Country Store, Rodale, →ISBN, page 267:

     Originally the cream filling in Oreo cookies was made with pork lard.

4. (figuratively) The best part of something.

   the cream of the crop;  the cream of a collection of books or pictures

   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Shelton

     Welcome, O flower and cream of knights errant.

5. (medicine) A viscous aqueous oil/fat emulsion with a medicament added, used to apply that medicament to the skin. (compare with ointment)

   You look really sunburnt; you should apply some cream.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Oliver Goldsmith

     In vain she tries her paste and creams, / To smooth her skin or hide its seams.

6. (vulgar, slang) Semen.
   • 2001, Darwin Porter, Hollywood’s Silent Closet: The Lusty Saga of America’s First Star F*#%er!!^[sic] (novel), Blood Moon Productions, Ltd., →ISBN, page 155,

     He rode me for ten—or was it fifteen?—minutes before one final fuckthrust that filled me completely with his cream.

   • 2003, Dominique Adair, “Two Days, Three Nights” in Tied with a Bow, Ellora’s Cave Publishing, →ISBN, page 74,

     He tucked his cock into his pants before rubbing his cream into her breasts in slow, teasing strokes.

   • 2004, Art Wiederhold, Wild Flowers, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 158,

     When he did come, he spurted his cream all over the front of Rosalee’s T-shirt and neck.

7. (obsolete) The chrism or consecrated oil used in anointing ceremonies.
   • 1485 July 31, Thomas Malory, “(please specify the chapter)”, in [Le Morte Darthur], (please specify the book number), [London]: […] [by William Caxton], OCLC 71490786; republished as H[einrich] Oskar Sommer, editor, Le Morte Darthur […], London: Published by David Nutt, […], 1889, OCLC 890162034:

     , Book V:

     there shall never harlot have happe, by the helpe of Oure Lord, to kylle a crowned Kynge that with Creyme is anoynted.

• ream

• Thai: ครีม (kriim)

cream (not comparable)

1. Cream-coloured; having a yellowish white colour.

cream (third-person singular simple present creams, present participle creaming, simple past and past participle creamed)

1. To puree, to blend with a liquifying process.

   Cream the vegetables with the olive oil, flour, salt and water mixture.

2. To turn a yellowish white colour; to give something the color of cream.
3. (slang) To obliterate, to defeat decisively.

   We creamed the opposing team!

4. (intransitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate (used of either gender).
   • 1971, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, “Grease Lightnin’”, Grease

     Danny Zuko: You are supreme / The chicks’ll cream / For grease lightning.

5. (transitive, vulgar, slang) To ejaculate in (clothing).
6. (transitive, cooking) To rub, stir, or beat (butter) into a light creamy consistency.
7. (transitive) To skim, or take off by skimming, as cream.
8. (transitive, figuratively) To take off the best or choicest part of.
9. (transitive) To furnish with, or as if with, cream.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Mrs. Whitney

     creaming the fragrant cups

10. (intransitive) To gather or form cream.

• Carme, McRae, crame, crema, macer, recam

• IPA^(key): [kreˈam]

cream

1. first-person singular imperfect of crea
2. first-person plural imperfect of crea