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Added 9 October 2026

cream

/kɹiːm/ noun

Latin root: chrisma Wiktionary

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about cream at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

The butterfat or 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…
The liquid separated from milk, possibly with certain other milk products added, and with at least eighteen percent of it milkfat.
The liquid separated from milk containing at least 18 percent milkfat (48% for double cream).

adjective

Cream-coloured; having a yellowish white colour.

verb

To puree, to blend with a liquifying process.
Cream the vegetables with the olive oil, flour, salt and water mixture.
To turn a yellowish white color; to give something the color of cream.
To obliterate, to defeat decisively.
We creamed the opposing team!

Origin

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 (“cream”), 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”)). Doublet of crema and crème. 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).

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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