Forms: α. 5 kremele, 6 crymble, 6–8 crimble; β. 6 cromble, croomble, 6– crumble. [The current form crumble is known only from late in the 16th c.; being evidently an assimilation to crumb, crumbly, etc., of the earlier crymble, crimble, the type being an OE. *crymelen (:—*krumilôn), f. cruma crumb: cf. prec. So Du. kruimelen, G. krümeln, LG. krömeln to crumble.]
1. trans. To break down into small crumbs; to reduce to crumbs or small fragments.
c. 1420. Liber Cocorum (1862), 36. Kremelyd sewet of schepe.
1570. Levins, Manip., 132/2. To crimble, comminuere.
1577. Hanmer, Anc. Eccl. Hist. (1619), 118. Commanded him to crimble or soke it.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 7. Bread must be distributed, not crumbled.
1796. Mrs. Glasse, Cookery, xiv. 214. You may crumble white bread instead of biscuit.
1853. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., i. 8. Moisture softens and crumbles the shale.
b. To strew or scatter as crumbs.
1547. Boorde, Brev. Health, cvi. 40 b. Crymble them into a pynt of read wyne.
1803. Jrnl. Excurs. Swiss Landscapes. While cabins, single or in clusters, have been crumbled over it.
c. fig.
1632. G. Herbert, Church Porch, xii. O crumble not away thy souls fair heap.
1667. Poole, Dial. betw. Protest. & Papist (1735), 81. You are crumbled into a thousand Sects.
1780. Burke, Sp. Econ. Reform, Wks. 1842, I. 240. To avoid frittering and crumbling down the attention.
1870. Farrar, Witn. Hist., ii. (1871), 75. Sufficient … to crumble the mythical theory of miracles into the dust.
2. intr. To fall asunder in small crumbs or particles; to become pulverized.
1577–87. Holinshed, Chron., III. 1137/2. Bulworks, whereof the filling … did crimble awaie.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., I. (1586), 32. The bread is very drye, and croombleth lyke Sand or Ashes.
c. 1624. Bp. M. Smith, Serm. (1632), 14. Shall it not breake and crimble betweene your fingers?
1697. Evelyn, Numism., Introd. 2. Marbles with their deepest inscriptions crumble away.
1703. T. N., City & C. Purchaser, 256. Their [stones’] edges crimble off.
1816. Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 224. The earth crumbled under our horses’ feet.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., xix. (ed. 5), 358. Ready to crumble at a touch.
fig. 1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xi. 404. They [the Donatists] crumbled into severall divisions amongst themselves.
1868. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), II. vii. 120. His influence was crumbling away.
