crumb

views updated Jun 08 2018

crumb / krəm/ • n. 1. a small fragment of bread, cake, or cracker. ∎  a very small amount of something. ∎  the soft inner part of a loaf of bread. ∎  a dessert topping made of brown sugar, butter, flour, and spices and crumbled over a pie or cake: [as adj.] apple crumb pie. ∎  (usu. crumb rubber) granulated rubber, made from recycled tires.2. inf. an objectionable or contemptible person.• v. [tr.] cover (food) with breadcrumbs.

Crumb

views updated May 29 2018

Crumb ★★★ 1994 (R)

Countercultural documentary looking at the life of underground cartoonist Robert Crumb—'60s satirist and social misfit who created such drug and sex characters as Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural. Crumb's extraordinarily dysfunctional family play a significant role, with his mother and two brothers, elder brother Charles and younger brother Max, also interviewed as well as Crumb's friends and current and former wives. The dead abusive father also plays a part. Director Zwigoff spent six years filming his material, and gained wider distribution for his work after taking the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. 119m/C VHS, DVD . Robert Crumb; D: Terry Zwigoff; C: Maryse Alberti. Directors Guild '95: Feature Doc. (Zwigoff); Natl. Soc. Film Critics '95: Feature Doc.; Sundance '95: Cine-matog., Grand Jury Prize.

crumb

views updated May 18 2018

crumb sb. OE. cruma, corr. with variation of vowel to MDu. crūme (Du. kruim), MLG., MDu. crōme, (M)HG. krūme, Icel. kr(a)umr; rel. to L. grūmus mound, Gr. grūméā crumb. The parasitic b appears XVI.
Hence crumb vb. superseding †crim (XV) — OE. ġecrymman :- *krumjan. crumble vb. break into crumbs or little bits. XVI.

crumb

views updated May 23 2018

crumb Small particle of bread, cake, or biscuit, as broken off by rubbing.