crumble

CEFRB1

/ˈkɹʌmbəl/

verb · noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To break into many small pieces.

  2. 02

    noun

    A baked fruit dessert with a crumbly topping.

Examples

  • The church's steeple is beginning to crumble with age.

  • Where did you crumble them?

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
2
Citations
2
Synonyms
2

Also pronounced

  • [ˈkɹʌmbl̩]

Deep Dive

verb

Extra meanings

  1. To break into crumbs.

  2. To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs.

  3. To fall apart; to disintegrate.

More examples

In context

  • 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.

  • We crumbled some bread into the water.

Synonyms

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Nearby

Origin

verb

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.