crumb

Meanings

Noun

• A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
• A small piece of other material, such as rubber.
• A bit, small amount.
• The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.
• A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
• A nobody; a worthless person.
• A body louse (Pediculus humanus).

Verb

• To cover with crumbs.
• To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble.

Related

Similar words

• crumbling

Origin

• From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma, from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *krūmô, from Proto-Indo-European *grū-mo-, from *ger-. The b is excrescent, as in limb and climb, appearing in the mid 15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim ("crumb"), Low German Krome, Krume, German Krume ("crumb"), Danish krumme ("crumb"), Swedish dialectal krumma, Swedish ininkråm, Icelandic krumur, Latin grūmus.