crumble

American  

[kruhm-buhl] / ˈkrʌm bəl /

verb (used with object)

• crumbles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• crumbled,
  past participle,  past
• crumbling
  present participle

1. to break into small fragments or crumbs.

   Synonyms:

   shatter, mash

---

verb (used without object)

• crumbles,
  present (3rd person singular)
• crumbled,
  past participle,  past
• crumbling
  present participle

1. to fall into small pieces; break or part into small fragments.

   Synonyms:

   disintegrate

2. to decay or disintegrate gradually.

   The ancient walls had crumbled.

noun

• crumbles
  plural

1. a crumbly or crumbled substance.

2. crumbles, bits of crisp bacon, bread, etc., added to other foods, especially as a topping.

3. British Dialect. crumb; particle; fragment.

crumble British  

/ ˈkrʌmbəl /

verb

1. to break or be broken into crumbs or fragments

2. (intr) to fall apart or away

   his resolution crumbled

---

noun

1. a baked pudding consisting of a crumbly mixture of flour, fat, and sugar over stewed fruit

   apple crumble

crumble Idioms  

1. see that's how the ball bounces (cookie crumbles).

---

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• crumblingness
  noun
• half-crumbled
  adjective
• uncrumbled
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• crumbles
  plural

Participles

• crumbling
  present
• crumbled
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• crumble
  simple
• crumbles
  simple
• have crumbled
  perfect
• has crumbled
  perfect
• am crumbling
  progressive
• are crumbling
  progressive
• is crumbling
  progressive
• have been crumbling
  perfect progressive
• has been crumbling
  perfect progressive

Past

• crumbled
  simple
• had crumbled
  perfect
• was crumbling
  progressive
• were crumbling
  progressive
• had been crumbling
  perfect progressive

Future

• will crumble
  simple
• will have crumbled
  perfect
• will be crumbling
  progressive
• will have been crumbling
  perfect progressive

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."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

crumble crumbles crumbled crumbling

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

A financial plan built for age 90 may crumble if a person lives to 110.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026

Because the enzymes worked in sequence, the material did not simply crumble into smaller plastic fragments.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 17, 2026

“It isn’t what you think, my dear. Please. Sit. Were family. Let’s discuss—” But Gherland felt himself crumble inside.

From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill

Top it with sliced olives, flaky salt, and crumbles of blue cheese if you’re feeling ambitious.

From Salon ● Jul. 7, 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

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

Pop’s face crumbles, looks like a scary Halloween mask.

From "Towers Falling" by Jewell Parker Rhodes

The hypocrisy of not paying athletes exasperated jurists all the way to the Supreme Court, and the old cabal crumbled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026

There were scenes of destruction in several cities, including Manizales, where the tower of a beloved neo-Gothic cathedral crumbled.

From Barron's ● Aug. 11, 2026

Hundreds of former regime security officials fled to Russia, as well as Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates, when the regime crumbled.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026

I crumbled some of the cornbread into olive oil and toasted it in a skillet.

From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026

She placed her hand on the rock, and the entire boulder crumbled to dust.

From "The House of Hades" by Rick Riordan

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

But that highly-profitable model is currently crumbling as courts are increasingly treating college athletic conferences as cartels engaged in anti-competitive price-fixing.

From Salon ● Sep. 15, 2026

The retirement myth of endless golf games or fishing trips melting into decades of elder bliss has been crumbling for decades.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 10, 2026

At its center is the crumbling marriage of two scientists; the story moves from a research base in Antarctica to a Wisconsin apple farm and, eventually, to a wild place called the Duoverse.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

He stepped directly from the crumbling blacktopped driveway out into the street.

From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix

Related Words

• break up
• collapse
• crush
• decay
• degenerate
• deteriorate
• disintegrate
• dissolve
• grind
• tumble