Find the word definition

Crossword clues for crumble

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
crumble
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
an empire crumbles (=loses power gradually)
▪ The vast empire was beginning to crumble.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
away
▪ It was all crumbling away in front of him.
▪ The rafters were green and the floorboards had crumbled away like old green bread.
▪ And where the old gargoyles are now crumbling away, attempts are being made to replace them, expensive though this is.
▪ The old Lombard aristocracy was gradually crumbling away except in the far north and the distant south.
▪ I thought it would crumble away.
▪ He took it slowly in four-wheel drive, the road much narrower here, the outer edge of it crumbling away.
▪ Our genes may be immortal but the collection of genes that is any one of us is bound to crumble away.
▪ But the building is gradually crumbling away, and the local council says it's powerless to do anything about it.
■ NOUN
wall
▪ The wall was crumbling and there were great gaps in it.
▪ When the wallpaper was steamed off, some of the walls crumbled.
▪ It was true - walls were crumbling and she had better make sure that new ones were not built.
▪ Some had no floor tiles and their walls were crumbling.
■ VERB
begin
▪ Its support began to crumble alarmingly even in its own working-class strongholds.
▪ The edifice of pride and power begins to crumble.
▪ If they switch off and the closed-circuit figures drop, the present heady economics of it all begin to crumble.
▪ This was not an inaccurate perception as the walls of segregation began to crumble after the war.
▪ Now the barriers they had sought to erect between philosophy and science began to crumble.
▪ Once that information began to spread into the community the opposition began to crumble.
▪ If not, it will begin to crumble anyway.
▪ When an academic approach is used the theory begins to crumble.
start
▪ But Gore's meticulous planning was starting to crumble.
▪ Construction quickly starts crumbling and coming apart.
▪ Paper will start to peel from the wall, and in the worst cases plaster will start to crumble.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
that's the way the cookie crumbles
▪ "Sorry you didn't get the job, Mike." "Yeah, thanks. I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles."
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
Crumble the bacon and set aside.
▪ Beat the eggs, crumble the cheese, and mix together.
▪ Briggs resolve crumbled and he reached for the whisky bottle.
▪ His circle of advisers and associates is crumbling along with his empire.
▪ Mrs. Suggs crumbled the bread into hot milk.
▪ Rangoon's old buildings are crumbling from neglect.
▪ Some of the tiles are crumbling around the edges.
▪ The autumn leaves crumbled in my fingers.
▪ The rubber seal is crumbling and will need to be replaced.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Dictator Mobutu Sese Seko's army crumbled, he was toppled, and Kabila was installed in his place.
▪ It was all crumbling away in front of him.
▪ Its sister mission in Tumacacori was built of adobe and has crumbled under the weight of the years.
▪ The old stonework was crumbling and eroded and badly in need of repair.
▪ They generally crumble after the first flight, leaving the fans only handfuls of tortilla shrapnel for the throwing.
▪ When donned, it crumbles to dust, but it confers the skills Charm, Mime, Mimic and Seduction.permanently.
II.noun
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And if he has the nerve, apple crumble with custard.
▪ Muriel kept a flow of small talk steadily through tomato soup, liver casserole and apple crumble.
▪ You can also use them in crumbles or tarts, cake and bread mixtures.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Crumble

Crumble \Crum"ble\ (kr[u^]m"b'l), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Crumbled (kr[u^]m"b'ld); p. pr. & vb. n. Crumbling (kr[u^]m"bl[i^]ng).] [Dim. of crumb, v. t., akin to D. kruimelen G. kr["u]meln.] To break into small pieces; to cause to fall in pieces.

He with his bare wand can unthread thy joints, And crumble all thy sinews.
--Milton.

Crumble

Crumble \Crum"ble\, v. i. To fall into small pieces; to break or part into small fragments; hence, to fall to decay or ruin; to become disintegrated; to perish.

If the stone is brittle, it will crumble and pass into the form of gravel.
--Arbuthnot.

The league deprived of its principal supports must soon crumble to pieces.
--Prescott.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
crumble

late 15c., kremelen, from Old English *crymelan, presumed frequentative of gecrymman "to break into crumbs," from cruma (see crumb). The -b- is 16c., probably on analogy of French-derived words like humble, where it belongs, or by influence of crumb. Related: Crumbled; crumbling.

Wiktionary
crumble

n. A dessert of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat, flour, and sugar. vb. 1 To fall apart; to disintegrate. 2 To render into crumbs.

WordNet
crumble
  1. v. fall apart; "the building crimbled after the explosion"; "Negociations broke down" [syn: crumple, tumble, break down, collapse]

  2. break or fall apart into fragments; "The cookies crumbled"; "The Sphinx is crumbling" [syn: fall apart]

  3. fall into decay or ruin; "The unoccupied house started to decay" [syn: decay, delapidate]

Wikipedia
Crumble

A crumble, also known as a brown betty, is a dish of British origin that can be made in a sweet or savoury version, depending on ingredients used, although the sweet version is much more common. A sweet variety usually contains stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat (usually butter), flour, and sugar. A savoury version uses meat, vegetables and a sauce for the filling, with cheese replacing sugar in the crumble mix. The crumble is baked in an oven until the topping is crisp. The dessert variety is often served with custard, cream or ice cream as a hearty, warm dessert after a meal. The savoury variety can be served with accompanying vegetables.

Popular fruits used in crumbles include apple, blackberry, peach, rhubarb, gooseberry, and plum. Sometimes, a combination of two or more of these fruits may be used in a crumble, for example, rhubarb and apple may be used in the same crumble. The crumble is typically given the name of the dominant fruit in it - for example, a crumble made with apple would get the name of "apple crumble", while one made with rhubarb would get the name of "rhubarb crumble". Coconut has also been used to make coconut crumble. The topping may also include rolled oats, ground almonds or other nuts, and sometimes sour milk (e.g. vinegar and milk) is added to give the crumble a more extravagant taste. Brown sugar is often sprinkled over the crumble topping, which caramelises slightly when baked. In some recipes the topping is made from broken biscuits ( cookies in American English) or even breakfast cereals, but this is not traditional.

Crumbles became popular in Britain during World War II, when the crumble topping was an economical alternative to pies due to shortages of pastry ingredients as the result of rationing. To further reduce the use of rationed flour, fat and sugar, breadcrumbs or oatmeal could be added to the crumble mix. The dish was also popular due to its simplicity.

In some parts of America a similar dish may be called a crisp.

Crumble (disambiguation)

Crumble may refer to:

  • Crumble, general fruit dessert
  • Apple crumble
  • Cookie Crumble, New Zealand ice cream
  • Crumble Cap, fungus Coprinellus disseminatus
  • Eric Crumble, boxer
  • Violet Crumble, Australian chocolate bar
  • Crumble, a play by Sheila Callaghan
  • Crumble (Transformers), a member of the Micromasters
  • The Crumbles, a shingle beach near Eastbourne
  • Crumbles murders, either of two notable murder cases at The Crumbles in 1920 and 1924
Music
  • Crumble (album), 1994 indie rock music album by Butterglory
  • "Crumble", 1996 song on the indie rock album Broken Girl by Julie Doiron
  • "Crumble", 2003 song on the indie rock album Feast of Wire by Calexico

Usage examples of "crumble".

There I drank it, my feet resting on acanthus, my eyes wandering from sea to mountain, or peering at little shells niched in the crumbling surface of the sacred stone.

She took ambergris from her pack and crumbled it, rubbed the waxy green granules into the soles of her feet, her wrists.

I heard it, and knew no more--heard it as I sat petrified in that unknown cemetery in the hollow, amidst the crumbling stones and the falling tombs, the rank vegetation and the miasmal vapors--heard it well up from the innermost depths of that damnable open sepulcher as I watched amorphous, necrophagous shadows dance beneath an accursed waning moon.

Here, in a vast old abandoned death house, replete with many strange vaulted chambers connected by dark and crumbling passageways winding convolutedly like so many intestines deep into the bowels of the earth, down ever downward, into small niche-pocked vaults filled with damp worm-eaten caskets, many askew and half-opened crypts of the long dead, urns of dust, and the scattered bones of dogs and man, here, chose Zulkeh to rest and ponder his wealth of artifacts and relics, his scrolls and tablets, his talismans and tomes, the fruit gathered of his many journeys.

A somersaulting shape, the pygmy killer was tossed beyond the crumbling mass of stone and dirt that entombed a dozen helpless people within the Aureole Mine.

The ostriches shut up in the planetwide aviary at Terra: those who lived in the sandpile because they had crumbled under the enormous psychological pressure suffered while emigrating.

The maid had set out five bone china plates holding salads that combined Bibb lettuce, avocado slices, and wedges of ripe pear with a crumbling of Gorgonzola.

Grace gripped his biceps, concentrating on holding tight to her self-control even though she could feel the foundation of resolve crumbling beneath her.

Sweet Judy Snakeyes crumbles in front of the armored skirts, then a coleopter named Death from Above, then another called Hanging Judge.

He reeled, and would have crumbled to the ground had not two or three others seized and steadied him.

Most edges crumbled and rounded off as if exposed to storms and climate changes for millions of years.

We must have had some such normal notions to fall back upon as our eyes swept that limitless, tempest-scarred plateau and grasped the almost endless labyrinth of colossal, regular, and geometrically eurythmic stone masses which reared their crumbled and pitted crests above a glacial sheet not more than forty or fifty feet deep at its thickest, and in places obviously thinner.

Cities built there had crumbled before their time, and had been found suddenly deserted.

The close aspect of the moon as the galley drew near proved very disturbing to Carter, and he did not like the size and shape of the ruins which crumbled here and there.

And it was very odd that shingles so worm-eaten could survive, or bricks so crumbled still form a standing chimney.