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crumble

/ˈkɹʌmbəl/ verb C1
  1. To fall apart; to disintegrate. (figuratively, intransitive) · 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.
  2. To break into crumbs. (transitive) · We crumbled some bread into the water.
  3. To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs. (transitive)

He/she/it crumbles · Past crumbled · Past participle crumbled · -ing form crumbling

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Verb forms

Base form
crumble
He/she/it
crumbles
Past
crumbled
Past participle
crumbled
-ing form
crumbling

From the library

That crumbles in your furnaces!
A Child's Garden of Verses, p. 18 · C1
An odour of age and decay pervaded the whole crumbling building.
The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes, p. 59 · B2
“No, sir, it crumbled all to bits after we moved it.”
The Hound of the Baskervilles, p. 133 · C1
Not a word to show your suspicions—not a word, or my plans crumble to the ground.”
The Hound of the Baskervilles, p. 169 · C1

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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.