One way to picture it: something dry and solid coming apart into small loose bits — not snapped in half, but losing itself crumb by crumb, so that what held together is now a pile of pieces.
From the word’s history
From Old English cruma 'crumb' plus the frequentative/diminutive -le: literally 'to keep making crumbs'. The bread-crumb picture sits directly inside the word.
這個字就是 crumb（麵包屑）加上表示反覆、細小動作的字尾 -le，字面意思是「一直掉屑、一直變成屑」。所以英文母語者聽到 crumble，腦中浮現的第一個材質其實是乾麵包：捏一下就一粒一粒落下來。知道這一點，後面石牆剝落、帝國瓦解的用法就都順了——它們都是在借那塊乾麵包的畫面。
Wiktionary (crumble), from Middle English kremelen / Old English *crymlan, related to Old English cruma 'crumb' + frequentative -le.
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
Crumblename
- 1
A surname.
crumbleverb/ˈkɹʌmbəl/
- 1
To fall apart; to disintegrate.
- The bread roll crumbled when I tried to slice it; it was too stale.
- The empire crumbled when the ruler's indiscretions came to light.
- 2
To break into crumbs.
- We crumbled some bread into the water.
- 3
To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs.
- Using your fingers, crumble the ingredients with the fingertips, lifting in an upward motion, until the mixture is sandy and resembles large breadcrumbs.
crumblenoun/ˈkɹʌmbəl/
- 1
A dessert of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat, flour, and sugar.
- blackberry and apple crumble
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。