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
-
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:
Yet even the best projections can crumble if, say, a parent loses a high-paying job or diverts money from their own retirement account to fund a 529 plan.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 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
The evidence suggests that extreme heating from the Sun is cracking the asteroid's surface, releasing trapped gases and causing the body to slowly crumble apart.
From Science Daily ● May 14, 2026
It was okay to cry in the privacy of my own bedroom, but I would never let him see me crumble.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
Cake crumbles, graham-cracker crust toppings and star-spangled sprinkles are a whole other challenge.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 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
For an indulgent breakfast option, she suggests making a tiramisu chia seed pudding with freshly-brewed espresso, oat milk, chia seeds, granola crumbles and a cacao dusting.
From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2026
Ages later, the sculptor crumbles out of the doorway and up to the mailbox.
From "I'll Give You the Sun" by Jandy Nelson
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
I crumbled some of the cornbread into olive oil and toasted it in a skillet.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
The celebrations turned deadly around midnight in the town of Ciudad Rodrigo in the west, after a fountain crumbled under the weight of supporters who had climbed onto it.
From Barron's ● Jul. 20, 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
He frowned at the arching gate, then snorted at the crumbled gilded leaves in a pile off to the side.
From "Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky" by Kwame Mbalia
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
Mountains of uncollected trash fill the streets of the crumbling capital, Havana.
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
Anderson used his power to earmark municipal funds to clean up the Black Belt’s crumbling sewers and streets.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
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.
