crumble
verbEtymology
From earlier crymble, crimble, from Middle English *crymblen, kremelen, from Old English *crymlan (“to crumble”), from *crymel (“a small crumb; crumble”), diminutive of Old English cruma (“crumb”), equivalent to crumb + -le (diminutive suffix). Compare Dutch kruimelen (“to crumble”), German Low German krömmeln (“to crumble”), German Krümel, diminutive of German Krume, German krümeln, krümmeln (“to crumble”). Alteration of vowel due to analogy with crumb.
- derived from cruma
- inherited from *crymblen✻
Definitions
To fall apart
To fall apart; to disintegrate.
- The bread roll crumbled when I tried to slice it; it was too stale.
- The empire crumbled when the ruler's indiscretions came to light.
- Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye? / Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?
To break into crumbs.
- We crumbled some bread into the water.
To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs.
- Using your fingers, crumble the ingredients with the fingertips, lifting in an upward motion, until the mixture is sandy and resembles large breadcrumbs.
›+ 2 more definitionsshow fewer
A dessert of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat,…
A dessert of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat, flour, and sugar.
- blackberry and apple crumble
A surname.
The neighborhood
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at crumble. 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.
A definitional loop anchored at crumble. 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 crumble
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