cream puff
Americannoun
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a nearly hollow shell made from choux pastry and filled with custard or whipped cream.
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Slang.
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a weak or timid person.
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a gay man.
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Slang. a vehicle or machine that has been kept in unusually good condition or is very easy to operate.
Wow, this old Rolls drives like a dream. What a cream puff!
noun
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a shell of light pastry with a custard or cream filling
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informal an effeminate man
Etymology
Origin of cream puff
First recorded in 1850–55
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The final scene, in which Titus enters dressed as a chef, a cream puff of a toque jauntily placed on his head—he’s baked those unpalatable pies—retains its deranged tone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 1, 2026
Gluck’s opera “Orfeo ed Euridice” is a funny thing: a timeless Greek myth of separation and loss, twisted into a Viennese cream puff.
From New York Times ● May 24, 2024
Their cream puff schedule generated absolutely no preseason buzz.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2022
And from there you can get a cream puff and then you just make enough cream puffs to glue them all together.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2022
“You never did eat the cream puff, did you?” she said.
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
