crust

To do work of any kind for a living; to earn money by some means. No, working in a canning factory isn't exactly glamorous, but I've got to earn my crust somehow. I hear Janet is earning her crust with an investment firm in Tokyo now.

To do work of any kind for a living; to earn money by some means. No, working in a canning factory isn't exactly glamorous, but we've all got to earn a crust somehow.

Promises are as thin and fragile as pie crust, and people make them so often but are rarely inclined to keep them. "Pie crust" is often written as a single word. A: "He promised to help me study for my exam, but he didn't show up!" B: "Well, promises are like pie crusts, Sarah—easily made, easily broken." A: "I promise that I will never do something like that again." B: "Not good enough, Tom. Promises are like piecrust—easily broken."

Promises are as thin and fragile as pie crust, and people make them so often but are rarely inclined to keep them. "Pie crust" is often written as a single word. A: "He promised to help me study for my exam, but he didn't show up!" B: "Well, promises are like pie crusts, Sarah—made to be broken." A: "I promise that I will never do something like that again." B: "Not good enough, Tom. Promises are like piecrust—they're made to be broken."

The most affluent, powerful, or influential class in a society; the social elites or aristocrats. The awards ceremony was a chance for me to mingle with the upper crust. For years, tax laws have been specifically designed to favor the upper crust before the working or lower class.

Fig. the higher levels of society; the upper class. (From the top, as opposed to the bottom, crust of a pie.) Jane speaks like that because she pretends to be from the upper crust, but her father was a miner. James is from the upper crust, but he is penniless.

The highest social class, as in She wanted badly to be one of the upper crust but it wasn't going to happen. This term alludes to the choicest part of a pie or loaf of bread. [First half of 1800s]

If you earn a crust or earn your crust, you earn enough money to live on, especially by doing work you would prefer not to do. In his early days, he would do almost anything to earn a crust. You have to earn your crust somehow. Note: A crust means a piece of bread, especially a piece of the hard, outer part of the loaf.

The upper crust are the people who belong to the highest social class. The Cowes Regatta is a gathering of the wealthy and the upper crust who race their huge yachts and attend grand parties.

An older name for high society. This term appears to have been coined by Thomas Haliburton in his Sam Slick tales. “It was none of your skim-milk parties, but superfine uppercrust,” he wrote (The Clockmaker, 1835). By 1850 others were using the term, which alluded to the choicest part of a pie or loaf of bread. “Those families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand” wrote James Fenimore Cooper (Ways of the Hour, 1850). The term is heard less often nowadays but is not quite obsolete.

The top level of society. Although you might think that “crust” refers to bread and that the upper part was reserved for the aristocracy, word detectives would say you're wrong: no authoritative written connection between bread and the well-bred can be found. “Crust” refers to the earth's crust, or top layer. The upper crust of a society is its top layer.