CRUMB

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does crumb mean? 

• CRUMB (noun)
  The noun CRUMB has 3 senses:

1. a very small quantity of something

2. a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible

3. small piece of e.g. bread or cake

  Familiarity information: CRUMB used as a noun is uncommon.

• CRUMB (verb)
  The verb CRUMB has 3 senses:

1. coat with bread crumbs

2. break into crumbs

3. remove crumbs from

  Familiarity information: CRUMB used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CRUMB (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A very small quantity of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting quantities and units of measure

Context example:

there were few crumbs of comfort in the report

Hypernyms ("crumb" is a kind of...):

small indefinite amount; small indefinite quantity (an indefinite quantity that is below average size or magnitude)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bum; crumb; dirty dog; git; lowlife; puke; rat; rotter; scum bag; skunk; so-and-so; stinker; stinkpot

Context example:

the British call a contemptible person a 'git'

Hypernyms ("crumb" is a kind of...):

disagreeable person; unpleasant person (a person who is not pleasant or agreeable)

Sense 3

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)

• CRUMB (verb)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Coat with bread crumbs

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Context example:

crumb a cutlet

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)

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:

Remove crumbs from

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Context example:

crumb the table

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)

 Context examples 

Hansel, however little by little, threw all the crumbs on the path.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

They yelped and howled under the rain of blows, but struggled none the less madly till the last crumb had been devoured.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Stoop down, and let me take the crumbs off of your bonnet.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

"Come, eat something," she said; but I put both away from me, feeling as if a drop or a crumb would have choked me in my present condition.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

The public, represented by a boy with a comforter, and a shabby-genteel man secretly eating crumbs out of his coat pockets, was warming itself at a stove in the centre of the Court.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“That?” returned Silver, smiling away, but warier than ever, his eye a mere pin-point in his big face, but gleaming like a crumb of glass.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He went straight over to the window and brushed out the crumbs of sugar; then he took his fly-box, and emptied it outside, and threw away the box; then he shut the window, and crossing over, sat down on his bed.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

When the moon came they set out, but they found no crumbs, for the many thousands of birds which fly about in the woods and fields had picked them all up.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Now I was ragged, wanting to sell Dora matches, six bundles for a halfpenny; now I was at the office in a nightgown and boots, remonstrated with by Mr. Spenlow on appearing before the clients in that airy attire; now I was hungrily picking up the crumbs that fell from old Tiffey's daily biscuit, regularly eaten when St. Paul's struck one; now I was hopelessly endeavouring to get a licence to marry Dora, having nothing but one of Uriah Heep's gloves to offer in exchange, which the whole Commons rejected; and still, more or less conscious of my own room, I was always tossing about like a distressed ship in a sea of bed-clothes.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I knew there would be pleasure in meeting my master again, even though broken by the fear that he was so soon to cease to be my master, and by the knowledge that I was nothing to him: but there was ever in Mr. Rochester (so at least I thought) such a wealth of the power of communicating happiness, that to taste but of the crumbs he scattered to stray and stranger birds like me, was to feast genially.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)