| / English Dictionary |
CRUMB
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Small piece of e.g. bread or cake
Classified under:
Nouns denoting foods and drinks
Hypernyms ("crumb" is a kind of...):
bit; bite; morsel (a small amount of solid food; a mouthful)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "crumb"):
breadcrumb (crumb of bread; used especially for coating or thickening)
cracker crumbs (crumbs of crackers used especially for coating or thickening)
Holonyms ("crumb" is a part of...):
baked goods (foods (like breads and cakes and pastries) that are cooked in an oven)
Derivation:
crumb (remove crumbs from)
crumb (break into crumbs)
crumb (coat with bread crumbs)
crumbly (easily broken into small fragments or reduced to powder)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible
Example:
the British call a contemptible person a 'git'
Synonyms:
bum; crumb; dirty dog; git; lowlife; puke; rat; rotter; scum bag; skunk; so-and-so; stinker; stinkpot
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("crumb" is a kind of...):
disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A very small quantity of something
Example:
there were few crumbs of comfort in the report
Classified under:
Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure
Hypernyms ("crumb" is a kind of...):
small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)
II. (verb)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Remove crumbs from
Example:
crumb the table
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "crumb" is one way to...):
remove; take; take away; withdraw (remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something abstract)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
crumb (small piece of e.g. bread or cake)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Break into crumbs
Classified under:
Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.
Hypernyms (to "crumb" is one way to...):
break up; fragment; fragmentise; fragmentize (break or cause to break into pieces)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
crumb (small piece of e.g. bread or cake)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Coat with bread crumbs
Example:
crumb a cutlet
Classified under:
Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging
Hypernyms (to "crumb" is one way to...):
coat; surface (put a coat on; cover the surface of; furnish with a surface)
Domain category:
cookery; cooking; preparation (the act of preparing something (as food) by the application of heat)
Sentence frame:
Somebody ----s something
Derivation:
crumb (small piece of e.g. bread or cake)
Context examples:
While Amy stood laughing on the bank above him as she scattered crumbs to the brilliant birds, Laurie looked at her as she had looked at him, with a natural curiosity to see what changes time and absence had wrought.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
They did not awake until it was dark night, and Hansel comforted his little sister and said: Just wait, Gretel, until the moon rises, and then we shall see the crumbs of bread which I have strewn about, they will show us our way home again.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
She next swept up the crumbs with a little broom (putting on a pair of gloves first), until there did not appear to be one microscopic speck left on the carpet; next dusted and arranged the room, which was dusted and arranged to a hair's breadth already.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
We stayed there nearly a week: I and Sophie used to walk every day in a great green place full of trees, called the Park; and there were many children there besides me, and a pond with beautiful birds in it, that I fed with crumbs.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
When the wine came, too, I thought it flat; and it certainly had more English crumbs in it, than were to be expected in a foreign wine in anything like a pure state, but I was bashful enough to drink it, and say nothing.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
The remains of my breakfast of bread and milk stood on the table, and having crumbled a morsel of roll, I was tugging at the sash to put out the crumbs on the window-sill, when Bessie came running upstairs into the nursery.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
But my little vanity, and Steerforth's help, urged me on somehow; and without saving me from much, if anything, in the way of punishment, made me, for the time I was there, an exception to the general body, insomuch that I did steadily pick up some crumbs of knowledge.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I gave another tug before I answered, for I wanted the bird to be secure of its bread: the sash yielded; I scattered the crumbs, some on the stone sill, some on the cherry-tree bough, then, closing the window, I replied—No, Bessie; I have only just finished dusting.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
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