crumble
/ˈkɹʌmbəl/ verb C1- To fall apart; to disintegrate. · The bread roll crumbled when I tried to slice it; it was too stale.· The empire crumbled when the ruler's indiscretions came to light.
- To break into crumbs. · We crumbled some bread into the water.
- To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs.
He/she/it crumbles · Past crumbled · Past participle crumbled · -ing form crumbling
Verb forms
- Base form
- crumble
- He/she/it
- crumbles
- Past
- crumbled
- Past participle
- crumbled
- -ing form
- crumbling
Phrasal verbs and expressions
From the library
That crumbles in your furnaces!
An odour of age and decay pervaded the whole crumbling building.
Descending into the grotto, he lifted the stone, filled his pockets with gems, put the box together as well and securely as he could, sprinkled fresh sand over the spot from which it had been taken, and then carefully trod down the earth to give it everywhere a uniform appearance; then, quitting the grotto, he replaced the stone, heaping on it broken masses of rocks and rough fragments of crumbling granite, filling the interstices with earth, into which he deftly inserted rapidly growing plants, such as the wild myrtle and flowering thorn, then carefully watering these new plantations, he scrupulously effaced every trace of footsteps, leaving the approach to the cavern as savage-looking and untrodden as he had found it.
“No, sir, it crumbled all to bits after we moved it.”
Other matches
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