crumb
Americannoun
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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).
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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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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
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a small piece or bit
crumbs of information
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the soft inner part of bread
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slang a contemptible person
verb
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(tr) to prepare or cover (food) with breadcrumbs
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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
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have been crumbingperfect progressive
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has been crumbingperfect progressive
Past
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crumbedsimple
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had crumbedperfect
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was crumbingprogressive
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were crumbingprogressive
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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:
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
The oil-based recipe yielded an airy yet moist crumb that was not overwhelmingly sweet—something true of all of Ms. de Ferrier’s cakes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 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
It adds gentle richness and, crucially, a plush but defined crumb — one that feels almost cushioned, yet precise.
From Salon ● Mar. 31, 2026
He carried the diamond knife and the plug of plastic containing the toast crumb of cells into the cutting room.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
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
Who does Clarke play up front - and is there any prospect that whoever it is might have more than crumbs to feed on?
From BBC ● Jun. 24, 2026
But you have been given enough bread crumbs to keep you interested.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 6, 2026
Startups that spent years fighting for crumbs of the Pentagon’s budget as the handful of large defense corporations feasted are suddenly finding themselves welcomed to the table and courted by Silicon Valley venture capital.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026
I was plastered with icing and covered with crumbs.
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
Use a broad knife to handle them with when crumbing.
From The Century Cook Book by Ronald, Mary
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
