cream off

Verb

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

1. To extract the cream or creamy part from something.
2. To separate (the best part of something from the regular part).
   • Manuel points out that the real cost of corruption is not what is actually embezzled or creamed off the top: The best thing these people could do is just take from the public treasury directly, because that would be much less expensive.2020, Cristina Flesher Fominaya, Democracy Reloaded, page 178
   • For entirely self-serving reasons, ministers and civil servants never dispelled the public belief that uncaring 'fat cat' privateers or foreign state railways were in control, ramping up fares and creaming off profits which either enriched shareholders or subsidised European rail fares. DfT left...2020 September 23, Nigel Harris, “Comment: We MUST seize the moment”, in Rail, page 3
3. To use a cream (cold cream) to remove something (usually makeup, from one's face).
4. (figuratively) To earn, or embezzle, a percentage of a profit.