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Crumb
Definitions
- 1 A surname.
- 1 A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread). countable, uncountable
"The pigeons were happily pecking at crumbs of bread on the ground."
- 2 small piece of e.g. bread or cake wordnet
- 3 A small piece of any other solid substance. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 4 a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible wordnet
- 5 A bit, small amount. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"a crumb of comfort"
Show 6 more definitions
- 6 a very small quantity of something wordnet
- 7 Ellipsis of crumb rubber. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
"Production of rubber granules, or crumb, is well-established in this country."
- 8 The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust. countable, uncountable
"Dust unto dust, what must be, must; / If you can't get crumb, you'd best eat crust."
- 9 A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate. countable, uncountable
- 10 A nobody; a worthless person. countable, slang, uncountable
"All Dad can think of is a gift certificate from the Melody Inn? And my crumb of a boyfriend doesn't even show up? This is a birthday?"
- 11 A body louse (Pediculus humanus). countable, slang, uncountable
- 1 To cover with crumbs. transitive
- 2 remove crumbs from wordnet
- 3 To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble. transitive
"to crumb bread"
- 4 break into crumbs wordnet
- 5 coat with bread crumbs wordnet
Etymology
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”).
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”).
English, Scottish, and Irish surname, spelling variant of Crum.
See also for "crumb"
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