crumb

 
Pronunciation: /krʌm/

noun

  • 1a small fragment of bread, cake, or biscuit: she brushed some cake crumbs off her dress [as modifier]: a crispy crumb topping
  • [mass noun] the soft inner part of a loaf of bread: a morsel of crumb will often tempt a chub
  • 2a very small amount of something: the Budget provided few crumbs of comfort
  • 3 informal, chiefly North American an objectionable or contemptible person: he’s an absolute crumb
  • 4 (also crumb rubber) [mass noun] granulated rubber, usually made from recycled car tyres.

verb

[with object]
  • cover (food) with breadcrumbs: (as adjective crumbed) crispy crumbed mushrooms with garlic dip

Phrases

crumbs from ——'s table

an unfair and inadequate share of something large: it will amount to no more than crumbs from the European Commission’s table

Origin:

Old English cruma, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch kruim and German Krume. The final -b was added in the 16th century, perhaps from crumble but also influenced by words such as dumb, where the original final -b is retained although no longer pronounced