Definition
nounA small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
nounA small piece of any other solid substance.
Sentence Examples
There is a crumb in his beard.
Luis gave the crumb trail a quick rinse.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *krūmô (“fragment, crumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *grū-mo- (“something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”), from *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist, wind”). The b is unetymological, as in limb, appearing in the mid-15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim (“crumb”), Low German Krome, Krume (“crumb”), German Krume (“crumb”), Danish krumme (“crumb”), Swedish dialectal krumma (“crumb”), Swedish inkråm (“crumbs, giblets”), Icelandic krumur (“crumb”), Latin grūmus (“a little heap”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table"
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 16:21:
"At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs."
— 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC:
"Then erase any pencil lines with a good, soft eraser, rubbing gently, in only one direction. A dustbrush can be useful in removing any eraser crumbs."
— 2012, Caroline Joy Adams, An Italic Calligraphy Handbook, page 79:
"Production of rubber granules, or crumb, is well-established in this country."
— 2007, R. E. Hester, R. M. Harrison, Waste Treatment and Disposal, page 109:
"Dust unto dust, what must be, must; / If you can't get crumb, you'd best eat crust."
— 1861, Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxford: