crumb
Americannoun
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crumbs
plural
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a small particle of bread, cake, etc., that has broken off.
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a small particle or portion of anything; fragment; bit.
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the soft inner portion of a bread (distinguished from crust).
-
crumbs, a cake topping made of sugar, flour, butter, and spice, usually crumbled on top of the raw batter and baked with the cake.
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Slang. a contemptibly objectionable or worthless person.
verb (used with object)
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crumbs,
present (3rd person singular)
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crumbed,
past participle, past
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crumbing
present participle
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Cooking. to dress or prepare with crumbs.
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to break into crumbs or small fragments.
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to remove crumbs from.
The waiter crumbed the table.
noun
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a small fragment of bread, cake, or other baked foods
-
a small piece or bit
crumbs of information
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the soft inner part of bread
-
slang a contemptible person
verb
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(tr) to prepare or cover (food) with breadcrumbs
-
to break into small fragments
adjective
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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crumbsimple
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crumbssimple
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have crumbedperfect
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has crumbedperfect
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am crumbingprogressive
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are crumbingprogressive
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is crumbingprogressive
-
have been crumbingperfect progressive
-
has been crumbingperfect progressive
Past
-
crumbedsimple
-
had crumbedperfect
-
was crumbingprogressive
-
were crumbingprogressive
-
had been crumbingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crumb
before 1000; Middle English crome, crume, Old English cruma; akin to Dutch kruim, German Krume crumb, Latin grūmus heap of earth
Explanation
A crumb is a very tiny piece of food. Some recipes instruct you to top a dish with bread crumbs before you bake it. Crumbs are what you're left with after finishing a box of cookies or a bag of tortilla chips — the bits that are too small to eat. You can also talk about other, non-edible types of crumbs, like the crumb of wisdom in an otherwise silly movie or the crumb of information a detective finds at a crime scene. The Old English root is cruma, "crumb," and it's thought that the silent b was influenced by words like dumb.
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.
See Examples For:
My assessment of the results is that the system provides only a crumb in welfare-type benefits.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
The 22-year-old now runs his own business scrubbing every sheet metal curve and interior corner of a vehicle until there isn’t a smudge or crumb left.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
When the last result was eventually declared in Inverness in the wee small hours, in a counting centre littered with empty pizza boxes, there was not even a crumb of comfort for the party.
From BBC ● May 9, 2026
Whatever else was happening inside my body, that combination — warm spice, soft crumb, sugary crunch — felt like safety.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2026
There’s a little crumb of Power Bar stuck in a wrapper.
From "Wayward Creatures" by Dayna Lorentz
The Union of High School students described the initial announcements last week as "crumbs".
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
Bake: Pour into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, until golden and a tester comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Certainly, I felt a bit like Odysseus as I crept — drained, disoriented and trailing popcorn crumbs like Ithican sand — out into the sun.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026
There is an absence of creative and dynamic central midfielders, a shortage of wingers with real pace and a serious problem in making chances for strikers who are forced to live off crumbs.
From BBC ● Jun. 28, 2026
Two shortbread crumbs went down the wrong way.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
But their fried chicken sandwich — made with crumbed chicken schnitzel, tarragon butter, lettuce and housemade pickle mayo on a steamed potato bun — is their bestseller.
From Salon ● Apr. 24, 2025
When dining out, choose plant-based options that are sautéed, grilled, baked, steamed, boiled or poached – instead of those that are crumbed or battered before deep frying.
From Salon ● Aug. 19, 2024
As FTX has crumbed, Mr. Bankman-Fried has been “working constructively with regulators, bankruptcy officials and the company to try to do what’s best for consumers,” he said on Sunday.
From New York Times ● Nov. 14, 2022
In my Tuscan family, it is only ever prepared one way, as cotolette di agnello fritte: crumbed, deep fried chops squirted with a lemon wedge.
From Slate ● Apr. 16, 2018
We three were still there around the crumbed table, dizzy with what she’d heard from Upstairs.
From "Secrets at Sea" by Richard Peck
Al-Sadr has also been a harsh critic of widespread corruption in the oil-rich country torn by decades of violence, with a crumbing infrastructure, an impoverished majority and lack of basic services.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 12, 2022
Tucked into a hilltop, Pignola is pure Italian charm: crumbing stone buildings and narrow, unnavigable streets.
From New York Times ● Dec. 3, 2018
For four decades, Deshpande has ushered more than 50,000 students into this cramped, derelict building of corrugated metal and crumbing cement.
From Slate ● Jul. 11, 2014
When we got close, Lt Adekunle deployed three men to search the blackened and crumbing building.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2013
A brush is not desirable for "crumbing" the table.
From School and Home Cooking by Carlotta Cherryholmes Greer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
