Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A very small piece broken from a baked item, such as a cookie, cake, or bread.
  • noun A small fragment, scrap, or portion.
  • noun The soft inner portion of bread.
  • noun Slang A contemptible, untrustworthy, or loathsome person.
  • intransitive verb To break into very small pieces; crumble.
  • intransitive verb To cover or prepare with very small pieces of bread.
  • intransitive verb To brush (a table or cloth) clear of small scraps or fragments of food.
  • intransitive verb To break apart in very small pieces.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as crump.
  • To break into small pieces with the fingers: as, to crumb bread into milk.
  • . To crumble bread into; prepare or thicken with crumbs of bread.
  • In cookery, to cover or dress with breadcrumbs, as meat, etc.; bread.
  • noun A morsel: specifically, a minute piece of bread or other friable food broken off, as in crumbling it; hence, a very small fragment or portion of anything.
  • noun The soft inner part of a loaf of bread or cake, as distinguished from the crust.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers.
  • noun A small fragment or piece; especially, a small piece of bread or other food, broken or cut off.
  • noun Fig.: A little; a bit.
  • noun The soft part of bread.
  • noun a brush for sweeping crumbs from a table.
  • noun with great exactness; completely.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A small piece which breaks off from baked food (such as cake, biscuit or bread).
  • noun figuratively A bit, small amount.
  • noun The soft internal portion of bread, surrounded by crust.
  • noun A mixture of sugar, cocoa and milk, used to make industrial chocolate.
  • noun slang A nobody, worthless person.
  • noun slang A body louse.
  • verb To cover with crumbs.
  • verb To break into crumbs or small pieces with the fingers; to crumble.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb break into crumbs
  • verb remove crumbs from
  • noun small piece of e.g. bread or cake
  • noun a very small quantity of something
  • verb coat with bread crumbs
  • noun a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English crome, from Old English cruma.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old English cruma ("crumb, fragment"). The b appeared in the mid 15th century to match crumble and words like dumb, numb, thumb.

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Examples

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  • The fact that even crumbs of bread were given utmost importance speaks of condition of living in Nazi concentration camp

    August 1, 2014