Crust
noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A more solid, dense or hard layer on a surface or boundary. countable, uncountable
- 2 the trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties wordnet
- 3 The external, hardened layer of certain foodstuffs, including most types of bread, fried meat, etc. countable, uncountable
- 4 the outer layer of the Earth wordnet
- 5 An outer layer composed of pastry countable, uncountable
"Th' impenetrable crust thy teeth defies."
Show 10 more definitions
- 6 a hard outer layer that covers something wordnet
- 7 The bread-like base of a pizza. countable, uncountable
- 8 A slice of bread cut from the end of a loaf; the heel. Australia, British, Canada, Ireland, New-Zealand, Northern-US, countable, uncountable
- 9 The outermost layer of the lithosphere of the Earth. countable, uncountable
"Holonyms: lithosphere < Earth"
- 10 The outermost layer of the lithosphere of any terrestrial planet. broadly, countable, uncountable
"Holonyms: lithosphere < planet"
- 11 The shell of crabs, lobsters, etc. countable, uncountable
- 12 A living. Australia, British, countable, informal, uncountable
"to earn one's crust"
- 13 Nerve, gall. informal, uncountable
"You've got a lot of crust standing there saying that."
- 14 The head. Australia, UK, countable, dated, slang, uncountable
"“Well, all I can say is that if yer don't take yer dial outer the road I'll bloomin' well take an' bounce a gibber off yer crust.”"
- 15 Ellipsis of crust punk, a subgenre of punk music. abbreviation, alt-of, countable, ellipsis, uncountable
- 1 To cover with a crust. transitive
"The whole body is crusted over with ice."
- 2 form a crust or form into a crust wordnet
- 3 To form a crust. intransitive
", The Goblin Reign Boxed Set Thistle held her hand over the wound and pressed a wad of tree moss against it. "Don't move," she said. "Let it crust.""
Example
More examples"Under Europa's icy crust might be an ocean of water."
Etymology
From Middle English cruste, from Anglo-Norman and Old French cruste, from Latin crusta (“hard outer covering”), from Proto-Indo-European *krustós (“hardened”), from *krews- (“to form a crust, begin to freeze”), related to Old Norse hroðr (“scurf”), Old English hruse (“earth”), Old High German hrosa (“crust, ice”), Latvian kruvesis (“frozen mud”), Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost, icy cold”), κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “crystal, ice”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬎𐬰𐬛𐬭𐬀- (xruzdra-, “hard”), Sanskrit क्रूड् (krūḍ, “thicken, make hard”).
Related phrases
More for "crust"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.