Upper Crust Meaning

(idiomatic, usually with the) The social elite, the highest social class.

Example: Used other than as an idiom: see upper,‎ crust. The topmost layer of a bread, pastry dish, or other item with a hardened coating.
1871, Louisa May Alcott, Little Men, ch. 20:
  She went to get her tarts . . . but some one had stolen all the fruit out of them by lifting up the upper crust.
1894, Mark Twain, "A Little Note to M. Paul Bourget" in Essays on Paul Bourget:
  I judged from your remark about the diligence and industry of the high Parisian upper crust that it would have some point.
2006 June 18, J. F. O. McAllister, "A New Kind of Elite," Time:
  Some accents reveal the distinctive bray of the upper crust, but most are generic middle class.

RECENT SEARCHES