crust

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crust / krəst/ • n. the tough outer part of a loaf of bread. ∎  a hard, dry scrap of bread: a kindly old woman might give her a crust. ∎  a slice of bread from the end of the loaf. ∎  a layer of pastry covering a pie. ∎  a hardened layer, coating, or deposit on the surface of something, esp. something soft: a crust of snow. ∎  the outermost layer of rock of which a planet consists, esp. the part of the earth above the mantle. ∎  a deposit of tartrates and other substances formed in wine aged in the bottle, esp. port.• v. [intr.] form into a hard outer layer: the blisters eventually crust over. ∎  [tr.] cover with a hard outer layer.DERIVATIVES: crus·tal / ˈkrəstəl/ adj. (in the geological sense).

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