crumb
Plural: crumbs
Noun
- a very small quantity of something
- "he gave only a crumb of information about his plans"
- "there were few crumbs of comfort in the report"
- a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible
- small piece of e.g. bread or cake
- A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
- A small piece of any other solid substance.
- A bit, small amount.
- Ellipsis of crumb rubber.
- 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
Verb Forms: crumbed, crumbing, crumbs
- To break into small fragments; to coat with breadcrumbs.
- coat with bread crumbs
- "crumb a cutlet"
- break into crumbs
- remove crumbs from
- "crumb the table"
- To cover with crumbs.
- To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble.
Examples
- a crumb of comfort
- He watched his high score CRUMB-le away as his opponent played back-to-back bingos.
- The pigeons were happily pecking at crumbs of bread on the ground.
Origin / 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”).
Synonyms
bum, dirty dog, git, lowlife, puke, rat, rotter, scum bag, skunk, so-and-so, stinker, stinkpot, Joe Nobody, absolute zero, ace, also-ran, asswipe, atom, aught, badling, bissel, bit, blatherskite, bugger, carrion, chip, chopped liver, chunk, cipher, clip, cockstain, crumb, crumblet, crumbling, custron, cutting, dab, damn, dandiprat, dash, diddly, doink, dot, drop, dusting, fellow, flake, fleak, fleck, flip, flyspeck, fragment, fritlag, geek, glimpse, glint, good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, grain, halfpennyworth, hint, hoon, hunk, inch, iota, jot, lick, lidderon, little guy, losel, loser, louse, lump, maggot, mammock, minnow, mite, modicum, molecule, morceau, morsel, mote, ne'er-do-well, nebbish, no one, no-good, no-mark, nobody, nonce, nonentity, nothing, nothingburger, nowmun, ooch, ort, ounce, particle, pelf, pennyworth, peon, picayune, piece, piecemeal, pig dog, pile of shit, pinch, pip-squeak, pissant, pleb, portion, prole, punk, puny, quat, quidam, ramp, rinky-dink, roly-poly, scantling, scent, scintilla, scooch, scrap, scraplet, scruple, scullion, semblance, shred, shrimp, skerrick, skoosh, skosh, slice, sliver, slubberdegullion, smattering, smidge, smidgen, smidget, smidgy, smitch, smithereen, snead, snippet, soupçon, spark, sparrow-fart, spatter, speck, speckle, spot, sprinkle, sprinkling, steck, strain, streak of piss, tad, tidbit, tidge, tittle, toddick, toerag, touch, trace, trifle, truant, tuppence worth, twerp, underperson, unworthy, wankstain, waste of space, whiff, whit, zero, zilch
Scrabble Score: 11
crumb: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcrumb: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
crumb: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary