Word.ws English Dictionary

crumbling

/ˈkɹʌmblɪŋ/

crumbling adjective: that crumbles; that breaks into small pieces or particles. Also the present participle and gerund of crumble.

Adjective

crumbling

  1. That crumbles; that breaks into small pieces or particles.
  2. (figuratively) In a state of decline.
    • A rain of dust fell from the crumbling ceiling.

Noun

crumbling (plural crumblings)

  1. Material that has crumbled away; crumbs.
    • Blank I call it, but it was figured over with the patches that please a painter, repaired breaches, crumblings of plaster, extrusions of brick that had turned pink with time[…]1888, Henry James, The Aspern Papers

Also used as

crumbling is also the present participle and gerund of crumble.

Synonyms of crumbling

13 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of crumbling

pluralcrumblings

Phrases with crumbling

Words that rhyme with crumbling

Questions about crumbling

What does crumbling mean?
Crumbling means that crumbles; that breaks into small pieces or particles.
What part of speech is crumbling?
Crumbling can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce crumbling?
Crumbling is pronounced /ˈkɹʌmblɪŋ/.

Words near crumbling in the dictionary

  1. crumblier
  2. crumblies
  3. crumbliest
  4. crumblike
  5. crumbliness
  6. crumbling
  7. crumbling skull rule
  8. crumbling skull rules
  9. crumbling up
  10. crumblingly
  11. crumblingness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crumbling (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-crumbling.wav.

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