student asking question

I feel like calling someone "upper crust" in front of them somewhat sounds sarcastic! What connotation does it have?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

It is not sarcastic at all in this specific context. If you say it to a person directly, it could be used either as a compliment or as something offensive, depending on the rest of the conversation. You can say "wow, you are part of the upper crust! How cool!" which would be a compliment. But you can also say "you are part of the upper crust, so you don't know the struggles of life" which would not be a compliment. Ex: The upper crust does not ride public transportation. Ex: Those disgraceful students were males from the upper crust.

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