cream the crop

Verb

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

1. (idiomatic) To pick out the most valuable or desirable things or people from a group for one's own interests.
   • 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.1968 July, Maurice F. X. Donohue, “Manpower Problems—Five Ways”, in Mountain Life & Work, volume 44, number 6, page 11
   • 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...2002 July 11, William L. Hamilton, “Seizing The Throne Of Good Taste”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms:

   cherry-pick