- An example of crumble is to hold a shell in your hand and crush it.
- An example of crumble is to make something into crumbs, or small pieces of bread.
- An example of crumble is to lose hope for success, your hope crumbles.
To crumble is to break into small pieces, or to fall to pieces.
transitive verb-·bled, -·bling
to break into crumbs or small pieces
Origin of crumblefrequentative of crumb
to fall to pieces; disintegrate
Rare a crumb or crumbling substance
verbcrum·bled, crum·bling, crum·bles
To break into small fragments or pieces: I crumbled the cheese into the salad.
- To fall into small fragments or pieces; disintegrate: The ancient castle had crumbled to ruins.
- To give way; collapse: an ego that crumbles under pressure.
- A baked dessert of fruit topped with a crumbly pastry mixture: cherry crumble.
- The crumbly mixture on top of such a dessert.
Origin of crumbleAlteration (influenced by crumb ) of Middle English cremelen from Old English crymelen frequentative of gecrymmian to break into crumbs from cruma crumb
(third-person singular simple present crumbles, present participle crumbling, simple past and past participle crumbled)