Contextualizebeta

crumb

noun
/kɹʌm/

Etymology

From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *krūmô (“fragment, crumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *grū-mo- (“something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”), from *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist, wind”). The b is unetymological, as in limb, appearing in the mid-15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim (“crumb”), Low German Krome, Krume (“crumb”), German Krume (“crumb”), Danish krumme (“crumb”), Swedish dialectal krumma (“crumb”), Swedish inkråm (“crumbs, giblets”), Icelandic krumur (“crumb”), Latin grūmus (“a little heap”).

  1. derived from *grū-mo-✻ — “something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”
  2. inherited from *krumô✻
  3. inherited from cruma — “crumb, fragment”
  4. inherited from crome

Definitions

  1. A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).

    • The pigeons were happily pecking at crumbs of bread on the ground.
    • desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table
    • At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.

  2. A small piece of any other solid substance.

    • Then erase any pencil lines with a good, soft eraser, rubbing gently, in only one direction. A dustbrush can be useful in removing any eraser crumbs.

  3. A bit, small amount.

    • a crumb of comfort
  4. ›+ 8 more definitions

    1. Ellipsis of crumb rubber.

      • Production of rubber granules, or crumb, is well-established in this country.

    2. The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.

      • Dust unto dust, what must be, must; / If you can't get crumb, you'd best eat crust.

    3. A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.

    4. A nobody

      A nobody; a worthless person.

      • All Dad can think of is a gift certificate from the Melody Inn? And my crumb of a boyfriend doesn't even show up? This is a birthday?

    5. A body louse (Pediculus humanus).

    6. To cover with crumbs.

    7. To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers

      To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble.

      • to crumb bread

    8. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

breadcrumb, bread crumb, by crumbs, cakecrumb, cake crumbs, crumbable, crumb cake, crumbcloth, crumb-cruncher, crumb cruncher, crumb-crusher, crumb crusher, crumber, crumb grinder, crumble, crumbless, crumblet, crumblike, crumb rubber, crumb snatcher, crumbum, crumby, crummy, decrumb, eat and leave no crumbs, leave no crumbs, pick up one's crumbs, toastcrumb, crumb down, crumb up, crumbed

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at crumb. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01crumb02biscuit03cookie04crisp05brittle06crumble07crumbs

A definitional loop anchored at crumb. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

7 hops · closes at crumb

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA