cream the crop

Definitions

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

idiomatic

Examples

“In the past, most agencies assumed that the other agencies were “creaming the crop,” training (or placing) the easiest or most docile or best-educated clients, manipulating data (or losing it if necessary) to look⟳ good: promising to do next year what they had promised to do the year before.”

“Taking new designs and young designers upmarket can take⟳ them out of context, though, killing idealistic ambitions with adult realities and removing them from the wider audience that might stand⟳ to profit from the value of their solutions. Mr. Pucci risks criticism that he could be creaming the crop.”

“Principals of nearby schools felt they had students “taken” from them, other teachers thought small schools were being given special treatment and more money, and some thought the small schools were “creaming the crop”—taking the best students from other schools.”

CEFR level