• IPA: /kɹʌm/

crumb

1. A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).

   The pigeons were happily pecking at crumbs of bread on the ground.

   • Bible, Gospel of Luke xvi. 21

     desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table

   • 1892, Walter Besant, chapter II, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619 ↗:

     At twilight in the summer there is never anybody to fear—man, woman, or cat—in the chambers and at that hour the mice come out. They do not eat parchment or foolscap or red tape, but they eat the luncheon crumbs.

2. A small piece of other material, such as rubber.
   • 2012, Caroline Joy Adams, An Italic Calligraphy Handbook (page 79)

     Then erase any pencil lines with a good, soft eraser, rubbing gently, in only one direction. A dustbrush can be useful in removing any eraser crumbs.

3. (figuratively) A bit, small amount.

   a crumb of comfort

4. The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.

   • Dust unto dust, what must be, must; / If you can't get crumb, you'd best eat crust.

5. A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
6. (slang) A nobody; a worthless person.
   • 1999, Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Alice on the Outside (page 146)

     All Dad can think of is a gift certificate from the Melody Inn? And my crumb of a boyfriend doesn't even show up? This is a birthday?

7. (slang) A body louse (Pediculus humanus).

• (crumbled food) crumbling
• (small amount) see also Thesaurus:modicum.

• crumble
• crumpet

• French: miette
• German: Krümel, (Austria) Brösel, (regional) Brosame
• Italian: briciola
• Portuguese: migalha
• Russian: кро́шка
• Spanish: miga

• German: Krümel, (Austria) Brösel
• Italian: briciola
• Portuguese: migalha
• Russian: кро́шка
• Spanish: miga, cacho

• French: mie
• German: Krume
• Italian: mollica
• Russian: мя́киш
• Spanish: miga, migaja

• Italian: impasto

crumb (crumbs, present participle crumbing; past and past participle crumbed)

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

   to crumb bread

• crumple

• French: paner
• German: panieren
• Italian: impanare
• Russian: кроши́ть
• Spanish: empanar

1. Surname