crumble
Syllables: crum·bleUK/ˈkɹʌmbəl//ˈkɹʌmbəl/
crumble verb: to fall apart; to disintegrate.
Verb
crumble (third-person singular simple present crumbles, present participle crumbling, simple past and past participle crumbled)
- To fall apart; to disintegrate.
- The bread roll crumbled when I tried to slice it; it was too stale.
- The empire crumbled when the ruler's indiscretions came to light.
- To break into crumbs.
- We crumbled some bread into the water.
- To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs.
- Using your fingers, crumble the ingredients with the fingertips, lifting in an upward motion, until the mixture is sandy and resembles large breadcrumbs.
Noun
crumble (countable and uncountable, plural crumbles)
Proper noun capitalized: Crumble
Crumble (plural Crumbles)
- A surname.
crumble meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
crumble in Tamil
- நொறுங்கி விழு, நொறுக்கு
crumble in Urdu
- چورا چورا کرنا
crumble in Bengali
- গুঁড়ো, টুকরো টুকরো হওয়া
crumble in Malayalam
- to crumble
- ഇടിയുക iṭiyuka
More languagesFewer languages
- crumble in Kannada
- ಮುದುಡು, ಮುದುರು, ಇಡಿ
- crumble in Sinhala
- පොඩි වෙනවා poḍi wenawā
- crumble in Nepali
- टुक्रिनु ṭukrinu
Examples of crumble in a sentence
- The rumblings of the masses precede the crumbling of the state.
- Because of the dangers of crumbling masonry, the castle turrets are no longer visitable by the public.
- Shortbread is my favorite cold pastry, yet being so brittle it crumbles easily, and a lot goes to waste.
Synonyms of crumble
Forms of crumble
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | crumbles |
| present participle | crumbling |
| past participle | crumbled |
| past | crumbled |
| alternative form | crimble |
| Noun | |
| plural | crumbles |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Crumbles |
Origin of crumble
From earlier crymble, crimble, from Middle English *crymblen, kremelen, from Old English *crymlan (“to crumble”), from *crymel (“a small crumb; crumble”), diminutive of Old English cruma (“crumb”), equivalent to crumb + -le (diminutive suffix). Compare Dutch kruimelen (“to crumble”), German Low German krömmeln (“to crumble”), German Krümel, diminutive of German Krume, German krümeln, krümmeln (“to crumble”). Alteration of vowel due to analogy with crumb.
Words formed from crumble
Words that rhyme with crumble
Questions about crumble
- What does crumble mean?
- Crumble means to fall apart; to disintegrate.
- What is crumble in Tamil?
- Crumble in Tamil is நொறுங்கி விழு, நொறுக்கு. See Crumble meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is crumble?
- Crumble can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce crumble?
- Crumble is pronounced /ˈkɹʌmbəl/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of crumble?
- The past tense of crumble is crumbled.
Words near crumble in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: crumble (page history and authors); Crumble (page history and authors); crumble (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crumble (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); crumble (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ഇടിയുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); crumble (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); පොඩි වෙනවා (Sinhala) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-crumble.ogg.
Cite this entry: “crumble.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crumble. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.