crumb
Americannoun
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crumbs
plural
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a small particle of bread, cake, etc., that has broken off.
-
a small particle or portion of anything; fragment; bit.
-
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
-
the soft inner part of bread
-
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
-
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
We ate thick slices with cold salted butter — not so much smeared across the crumb as laid on in pale slabs, because patience has never been a prerequisite for breakfast.
From Salon ● Aug. 31, 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
The fact she managed to show fight and take the second set into a tie-break was a clear crumb of comfort.
From BBC ● May 24, 2026
Her weakened body rejects even the tiniest crumb of bread and drop of water.
From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein
The Union of High School students described the initial announcements last week as "crumbs".
From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026
The toppings are market-flexible, too: Use whatever chèvre or goat cheese you find, whether it crumbles into little pillows or lands in soft clouds, and turn a leftover hunk of cornbread into crisp, salty 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
Once, ants seeking water and crumbs enter during a time of drought.
From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads
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 cheap and excellent dish is made by filleting the tail of cod, egging and crumbing the pieces and frying them.
From Nelson's Home Comforts Thirteenth Edition by Mary Hooper
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.
