crumble
Americanverb (used with object)
-
crumbles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
crumbled,
past participle, past
-
crumbling
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
crumbles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
crumbled,
past participle, past
-
crumbling
present participle
-
to fall into small pieces; break or part into small fragments.
- Synonyms:
- disintegrate
-
to decay or disintegrate gradually.
The ancient walls had crumbled.
noun
-
crumbles
plural
-
a crumbly or crumbled substance.
-
crumbles, bits of crisp bacon, bread, etc., added to other foods, especially as a topping.
-
British Dialect. crumb; particle; fragment.
verb
-
to break or be broken into crumbs or fragments
-
(intr) to fall apart or away
his resolution crumbled
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
crumblesimple
-
crumblessimple
-
have crumbledperfect
-
has crumbledperfect
-
am crumblingprogressive
-
are crumblingprogressive
-
is crumblingprogressive
-
have been crumblingperfect progressive
-
has been crumblingperfect progressive
Past
-
crumbledsimple
-
had crumbledperfect
-
was crumblingprogressive
-
were crumblingprogressive
-
had been crumblingperfect progressive
Future
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."
Vocabulary lists containing crumble
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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:
Nearly 8.3 million refugees and other forcibly displaced people face losing vital assistance from UNHCR, the UN's refugee agency warned Tuesday, as protection services crumble due to "severe" funding cuts.
From Barron's ● Sep. 28, 2026
Seiler wanted to know whether researchers could recover writing from these carbonized scrolls without physically unrolling them, an action that could cause the brittle papyrus to crumble into black dust.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 26, 2026
And while deepening ties with Europe would be welcomed by many Canadians, there is still a sense that the country's relationship with the US - however strained - must not crumble.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
But in the months since, his pageant dreams have begun to crumble.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026
Her voice broke on his name, and Moss felt the wall inside of him crumble.
From "Anger Is a Gift" by Mark Oshiro
As sentiment about AI crumbles, Klement said the stock market could fall about 35% — hence his 5,000 target for the S&P 500.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
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
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
“Your mother was a rat, and that makes you a baby rat,” she spits, and Willa’s world crumbles further.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 5, 2026
Her face crumbles for a second like she might cry.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
That looseness doomed Texas all afternoon long, as a 10-point lead crumbled into their first defeat of the season.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 11, 2026
The powerful surf exacerbated by the morning's high tide slammed into coastal communities, including Long Beach, where signficiant sections of the boardwalk crumbled under the pounding waves and several homes suffered serious structural damage.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
Prospects of a sequel crumbled in 2019 when the Hollywood Reporter broke news that Lim left the sequel over pay disparity.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026
But Kemp quickly crumbled back in the castle, when paranoia set in.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2026
If I were a hulking, armor-clad hero, the tower would have crumbled like dry bread.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
The 27,000 residents that remain in Mene Grande contend with chronic blackouts and crumbling infrastructure, with some of the wells better fit for a museum than a working oil field.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
"When Bake Off should be crumbling after 17 seasons, Nigella Lawson is making Channel 4's crown jewel fresher than ever," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Elsewhere in Miami, prominent Cuban-Americans are mapping out a provisional government, recruiting engineers to study floating power stations, and strategizing on repairs to the island’s crumbling infrastructure.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 21, 2026
McKinley stages a few bullet-sweating sequences of peril, including a particularly brutal transport of gold bars across a crumbling rope bridge and an underwater accident exacerbated by floating logs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
“Excellent,” giggled Mr. Peckleman, crumbling the thirty-two cards in his hand, wadding them up into one extremely flammable paper ball.
From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein
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.
