upper crust

First known use as an idiom: 1836.

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• Rhymes: -ʌst

upper crust (plural upper crusts)

1. Used other than with a figurative or idiomatic meaning: 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.

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

• (social elite): upper class, the quality, the Quality

• upper-crust

upper crust (comparative more upper crust, superlative most upper crust)

1. Alternative form of upper-crust