crumble
verb /ˈkrʌmbl/
/ˈkrʌmbl/
Verb Forms
Idioms | present simple I / you / we / they crumble | /ˈkrʌmbl/ /ˈkrʌmbl/ |
| he / she / it crumbles | /ˈkrʌmblz/ /ˈkrʌmblz/ |
| past simple crumbled | /ˈkrʌmbld/ /ˈkrʌmbld/ |
| past participle crumbled | /ˈkrʌmbld/ /ˈkrʌmbld/ |
| -ing form crumbling | /ˈkrʌmblɪŋ/ /ˈkrʌmblɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] to break or break something into very small pieces
- Rice flour makes the cake less likely to crumble.
- crumble something Crumble the cheese over the salad.
- She crumbled the dry earth into fine powdery dust.
- [intransitive] if a building or piece of land is crumbling, parts of it are breaking off
- buildings crumbling into dust
- crumbling stonework
- The cliff is gradually crumbling away.
- They live in a crumbling old mansion.
- [intransitive] to begin to fail or get weaker or to come to an end
- a crumbling business/relationship
- crumble away All his hopes began to crumble away.
- crumble into/to something The empire finally crumbled into dust.
Word Originlate Middle English: probably from an Old English word related to crumb.
Idioms
that’s the way the cookie crumbles
- (informal) that is the situation and we cannot change it, so we must accept it