crumble
/ˈkɹʌmbəl/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.29 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A dessert of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat, flour, and sugar.
Countable; Uncountable
name
A surname.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Weren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbye? / Did you think I'd crumble? Did you think I'd lay down and die?"
- "In 1989, as communism was beginning to crumble across Eastern Europe, just a few months before protesters started pecking away at the Berlin Wall, the Japanese game-making giant Nintendo reached across the world to unleash upon America its own version of freedom."
- "We crumbled some bread into the water."
- "Using your fingers, crumble the ingredients with the fingertips, lifting in an upward motion, until the mixture is sandy and resembles large breadcrumbs."
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɹʌmbəl/
- British English: /ˈkɹʌmbəl/