crumb

Meaning

Noun

1. A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
2. A small piece of any other solid substance.
3. A bit, small amount.
4. Short for crumb rubber.
5. The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.
6. A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
7. (slang) A nobody; a worthless person.
8. (slang) A body louse (Pediculus humanus).

Verb

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

Synonyms

bit

grain

scrap

fragment

morsel

particle

bread

🍞

piece

chip

dirty dog

bite

bum

git

lowlife

lump

nibble

puke

rat

🐀

remnant

rotter

skunk

🦨

so-and-so

stinker

stinkpot

taste

tidbit

food scraps

discarded food

scum bag

spot

mite

breadcrumb

mhewu also occurs

bits and pieces

pellet

baby

👶

pinch

pith

cumularsharolith

quad

soft part of bread

coat with breadcrumbs

tip

babe

shred

titbit

small piece

snippet

B

B

soil

crumble

darling

dear

debris

part

drop

flake

crum

gift

🎁

sop

charity

granule

hunk

kernel

leftover

little bit

speck

Pronounced as (IPA)

/kɹʌm/

Etymology

From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic *krumô, *krūmô (“fragment, crumb”), from Proto-Indo-European *grū-mo- (“something scraped together, lumber, junk; to claw, scratch”), from *ger- (“to turn, bend, twist, wind”). The b is unetymological, as in limb, appearing in the mid-15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim (“crumb”), Low German Krome, Krume (“crumb”), German Krume (“crumb”), Danish krumme (“crumb”), Swedish dialectal krumma (“crumb”), Swedish inkråm (“crumbs, giblets”), Icelandic krumur (“crumb”), Latin grūmus (“a little heap”).