crumble

American  

[kruhm-buhl] / ˈkrʌm bəl /

verb (used with object)

• crumbles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• crumbled,
  past participle,  past
• crumbling
  present participle

1. to break into small fragments or crumbs.

   Synonyms:

   shatter, mash

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verb (used without object)

• crumbles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• crumbled,
  past participle,  past
• crumbling
  present participle

1. to fall into small pieces; break or part into small fragments.

   Synonyms:

   disintegrate

2. to decay or disintegrate gradually.

   The ancient walls had crumbled.

noun

• crumbles
  plural

1. a crumbly or crumbled substance.

2. crumbles, bits of crisp bacon, bread, etc., added to other foods, especially as a topping.

3. British Dialect. crumb; particle; fragment.

crumble British  

/ ˈkrʌmbəl /

verb

1. to break or be broken into crumbs or fragments

2. (intr) to fall apart or away

   his resolution crumbled

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noun

1. a baked pudding consisting of a crumbly mixture of flour, fat, and sugar over stewed fruit

   apple crumble

crumble Idioms  

1. see that's how the ball bounces (cookie crumbles).

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• crumblingness
  noun
• half-crumbled
  adjective
• uncrumbled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• crumbles
  plural

Participles

• crumbling
  present
• crumbled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• crumble
  simple
• crumbles
  simple
• have crumbled
  perfect
• has crumbled
  perfect
• am crumbling
  progressive
• are crumbling
  progressive
• is crumbling
  progressive
• have been crumbling
  perfect progressive
• has been crumbling
  perfect progressive

Past

• crumbled
  simple
• had crumbled
  perfect
• was crumbling
  progressive
• were crumbling
  progressive
• had been crumbling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will crumble
  simple
• will have crumbled
  perfect
• will be crumbling
  progressive
• will have been crumbling
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of crumble

1375–1425; earlier crymble, crimble; late Middle English kremelen, akin to crome crumb; see -le

Explanation

To crumble is to come apart into tiny pieces. If the doughnuts you bring to work crumble before you get there, you co-workers will have nothing but crumbs to snack on. Baked goods seem to crumble easily, but other things tend to crumble too: old houses, over time; sand castles; fragile ruins; and art objects made from clay. Anything that falls apart, especially into small bits, can be said to crumble. The root of the word is the Old English gecrymman, "to break into crumbs," which in turn comes from cruma, "crumb or fragment."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crumble crumbles crumbled crumbling

Because the enzymes worked in sequence, the material did not simply crumble into smaller plastic fragments.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

Venezuela's interim leader declared a state of emergency Wednesday as two massive earthquakes caused buildings in the capital to crumble and forced the closure of the country's main airport.

From Barron's ● Jun. 25, 2026

That’s reductive — the cookie doesn’t crumble quite so.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 1, 2026

So, the SPX chart remains bullish, and we’ll see if the recent sell signals crumble in the face of yet another rally or if they can hold their position.

From MarketWatch ● May 22, 2026

It’s only when I catch Rosie actually purring under August’s loving ministrations that my conviction starts to crumble.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

But it’s now clear that once you abandon all restraint and say the ends justify the means, even if there’s an argument for it, the whole legal edifice crumbles.

From Salon ● Jun. 4, 2026

She added, “Today, that narrative crumbles, and it does so with the full force of a court ruling.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2026

"The irony is now we're just studying a regular comet and it crumbles in front of our eyes," said principal investigator Dennis Bodewits, also a professor in Auburn University's Department of Physics.

From Science Daily ● Mar. 21, 2026

But any debate over female filmmakers in genre cinema crumbles under the considerable evidence and attendant indignation to be found in “1000 Women in Horror.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026

I have to pout and roll my eyes for hours until she finally wears down and crumbles into a thousand grains of beach sand.

From "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson

Hundreds of former regime security officials fled to Russia, as well as Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, when the regime crumbled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

I crumbled some of the cornbread into olive oil and toasted it in a skillet.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

Lisbeth Portillo, 58, was lying on a bed in a second-floor room shared with 16 other women when the building crumbled.

From BBC ● Jul. 2, 2026

Andrea Canonico focused on her breathing to stay calm as she lay trapped under a building that had crumbled during the two powerful earthquakes that struck Venezuela last week.

From Barron's ● Jul. 1, 2026

Grass and dirt crumbled aside and there was the robot, standing tall, pointing the rifle at the wolf leader.

From "The Wild Robot Escapes" by Peter Brown

Neither of us felt particularly protected by the law of marriage, and both of us had trauma around the crumbling reality of it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

Meanwhile, in Cuba, Chinese solar panels are a bright spot for a power grid plagued by fuel shortages, crumbling infrastructure and near-daily blackouts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026

Big picture: Worries about a crumbling labor market at the end of last year have mostly gone away.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

Jennings argues there are crumbling shopping centres all over the country, hit by online shopping, that could do the job.

From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026

The crumbling ruins were bleached so white, they almost glowed.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

Related Words

• break up
• collapse
• crush
• decay
• degenerate
• deteriorate
• disintegrate
• dissolve
• grind
• tumble