Past tense of crum; to make something crumbly or to crush into small pieces.
From Middle English crumen, related to Old English cruma meaning 'crumb.' The word evolved from describing the natural breaking apart of bread and baked goods into the general sense of crushing or fragmenting.
This word is part of a linguistic family that gave us 'crumb,' 'crumble,' and 'crummy'—all tracing back to the same ancient root meaning fragmentation, which is why old bread is both literally crumbly and metaphorically 'crummy'.
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