crumb

UK/kɹʌm/US/kɹʌm/

nounC12 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #6,238 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: crumbs

A crumb is a tiny piece that falls from bread or cake. Brush the crumbs, not a crumb left, breadcrumbs.

Crumbs are what a meal leaves behind, so not a crumb left means completely eaten. Figuratively a crumb is a scrap of something withheld: a crumb of comfort, crumbs of information. Breadcrumbs are also the trail Hansel and Gretel left, which is why a breadcrumb trail in software means the path back. Note crumble, crumbly; and crumbs as a mild British exclamation of surprise.

Definitions of crumb

1nouncrumbA tiny piece that falls from bread or cake.C1
“He brushed the crumbs off the table after eating his toast.”
- Said"You've got a crumb on your chin; there, gone."
- WrittenCrumbs marked his route from the kitchen to the sofa and back again.
- UsedBrush the crumbs off the board before you serve the cake.
- ContrastA crumb, not a slice. A slice is cut on purpose; a crumb falls off by itself, too small to eat. slice →
- Not thisA chunk of bread is not a crumb. A crumb is tiny, and there are always more.
- Exchange"Any cake left?""Crumbs. Literally."
- SimplyThere are crumbs on the table. Clean them.
Patternbread / cake / biscuit crumbs · a crumb of + noun · brush off the crumbs · crumble · breadcrumbs
2nounscrapA scrap of something withheld.C1
“The report offered only a crumb of hope to the families.”

crumb is a tiny fragment.

Remember it

crUMB → the crumb stuck to your thUMB

Press your thumb onto the table after the cake, and a crumb sticks to it: one tiny piece.

hooks ontothumb

Where it comes from

Old English cruma is a plain Germanic word. The b is silent and unhistorical, added in the fifteenth century by people who thought crumb should look like dumb, numb and thumb.

Proto-Germanic
*krumô
Old English
cruma — crumb, fragment
Middle English
crome
English, today
crumb

Built from

*krūmô · Proto-Germanic — fragment, crumb

From Middle English crome, cromme, crumme, crume, from Old English cruma (“crumb, fragment”), from Proto-Germanic krumô, krūmô (“fragment, crumb”). The b is unetymological, as in limb, and first appeared in the mid-15th century, influenced by crumble and words such as dumb, numb, and thumb. Cognate with Dutch kruim (“crumb”), Low German Krome, Krume (“crumb”), German Krume (“crumb”), Danish krumme (“crumb”), Swedish dialectal krumma (“crumb”), Swedish ininkråm (“crumbs, giblets”), Icelandic krumur (“crumb”), Latin grūmus (“a little heap”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Definitions of crumb

1nouncrumbA tiny piece that falls from bread or cake.C1

“He brushed the crumbs off the table after eating his toast.”

Said"You've got a crumb on your chin; there, gone."
WrittenCrumbs marked his route from the kitchen to the sofa and back again.
UsedBrush the crumbs off the board before you serve the cake.
ContrastA crumb, not a slice. A slice is cut on purpose; a crumb falls off by itself, too small to eat. slice →
Not thisA chunk of bread is not a crumb. A crumb is tiny, and there are always more.
Exchange"Any cake left?""Crumbs. Literally."
SimplyThere are crumbs on the table. Clean them.

Patternbread / cake / biscuit crumbs · a crumb of + noun · brush off the crumbs · crumble · breadcrumbs

2nounscrapA scrap of something withheld.C1

“The report offered only a crumb of hope to the families.”

crumb is a tiny fragment.