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
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crumbles
plural
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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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Words to Know Before You Defrost the Bird
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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:
"I couldn't believe the effect it had on the concrete. It just disintegrates. You can crumble it in your fingers - it almost turns to dust."
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 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
Next, we had tried the floor, but after a few hours of sitting, my back felt like it was ready to crumble.
From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken
Cake crumbles, graham-cracker crust toppings and star-spangled sprinkles are a whole other challenge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 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
"Today, that narrative crumbles, and it does so with the full force of a court ruling."
From BBC ● May 18, 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
My body crumbles as I fall out of my seat and lunge toward the door, landing at Suma’s feet.
From "The Last Cuentista" by Donna Barba Higuera
Top each generously with chèvre — crumbled if firm, dolloped if soft and spreadable — and about ¼ cup of the crisp cornbread crumbs.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
But the cluster of blue-paneled, four-story apartment buildings—constructed by a Turkish contractor—quickly crumbled into piles of twisted metal and plywood when the earthquakes rocked Venezuela’s northern coast.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 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
Serve hot with crumbled Cotija cheese, sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo.
From Salon ● Jun. 29, 2026
Cultures girded themselves against zero, and philosophies crumbled under its influence, for zero is different from the other numbers.
From "Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea" by Charles Seife
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
Images broadcast by Colombian journalists showed buildings crumbling and people running in cities such as Manizales and Pereira, both located in the country’s coffee-growing region.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Big picture: Worries about a crumbling labor market at the end of last year have mostly gone away.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026
At the buffet for the central command post in Lege-Cap-Ferret, it takes two full-size catering trays to contain the range of artisanal cheeses crumbling or oozing onto the warm metal for the firefighters' pleasure.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Out of water, the soaked cast felt like it weighed a hundred pounds, the muddy plaster already crumbling.
From "Pax" by Sara Pennypacker
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.
