MEANING
1. To fall or break into small fragments, or lose strength and coherence.
2. A baked dish with a crumbly topping, commonly over fruit.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- walls crumble
- authority crumbles
On the page
The plaster crumbled beneath her hand.
Nearby words
Word forms
- Base
- crumble
- Past tense
- crumbled
- Past participle
- crumbled
- Present participle
- crumbling
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- crumble
- Present continuous
- am/is/are crumbling
- Present perfect
- have/has crumbled
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been crumbling
- Past
- crumbled
- Past continuous
- was/were crumbling
- Past perfect
- had crumbled
- Past perfect continuous
- had been crumbling
- Future
- will crumble
- Future continuous
- will be crumbling
- Future perfect
- will have crumbled
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been crumbling
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: horror / gothic. Forms: crumble; crumbles; crumbled; crumbled; crumbling. Noun singular crumble; plural crumbles. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: crumbles.
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