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crust

noun
\ ˈkrəst How to pronounce crust (audio) \

Definition of crust

1a : the hardened exterior or surface part of bread
b : a piece of this or of bread grown dry or hard
2a : the pastry shell of a pie : piecrust
b : the bready layer that forms the foundation of a pizza
3 : a hard or brittle external coat or covering: such as
a : a hard surface layer (as of soil or snow)
b : the outer part of a planet, moon, or asteroid composed essentially of crystalline rocks
c : a deposit built up on the interior surface of a wine bottle during long aging
d : an encrusting deposit (as of the eye) of dried secretions or exudate also : scab
4 : gall, nerve
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Other Words from crust

crust verb
crustal \ ˈkrə-​stᵊl How to pronounce crustal (audio) \ adjective
crustless \ ˈkrəs(t)-​ləs How to pronounce crustless (audio) \ adjective

Examples of crust in a Sentence

Her children prefer to eat their sandwiches with the crust cut off. a pie with flaky crust He likes pizza with thin crust.
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Recent Examples on the Web

 These conversations allow the player to recruit students from neighboring house and learn who is an upper-crust, institutional brat and who truly wants to make a difference in the world. — Todd Martens, Los Angeles Times, "The Player: ‘Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ is Nintendo at its most flirtatious," 2 Aug. 2019 Cox had grown up in a family with upper-crust aspirations; his father was an insurance manager who always drove a current-model BMW. — Rachel Monroe, The Atlantic, "The True-Crime Writer in Cellblock B4," 16 July 2019 Psaltis’ pies have thin, light and crispy crusts, and the heels, aggressively charred by the wood grill, deliver a satisfying chew. — Phil Vettel, chicagotribune.com, "Two pizzerias making a splash along the Chicago River — one with Phil Vettel’s favorite pizza crust in town," 15 Aug. 2019 Specifically, a double-crust apple pie from scratch. — oregonlive.com, "Love and competition -- the key ingredients in Oregon mother-and-son’s pie bake-off," 15 Aug. 2019 But new studies from the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Lab are painting a more accurate picture of the stresses within the earth's crust. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "It's Really Hard to Predict an Earthquake, but Scientists Are Getting Closer," 14 Aug. 2019 The goal is to create a beer that brings cherry cobbler to mind (with the oats, granola and sugar creating a crust-like taste) that concludes with a smooth chocolatey finish. — Chris Morris, Fortune, "Goose Island Will Release 8 Bourbon County Variants This Year—and a Collection," 14 Aug. 2019 Delevingne comes from an upper-crust London family, with the posh accent to prove it. — Julia Felsenthal, Marie Claire, "Cara Delevingne Bares All," 13 Aug. 2019 Gluten-free and vegan hot dog buns, pie crust, banana bread, bars and cookies: Those are among the offerings at a new gluten-free, vegan bakery that has set up shop in a tiny house in St. Paul. — Nancy Ngo, Twin Cities, "Gluten-free, vegan bakery opens in tiny house in St. Paul," 12 Aug. 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'crust.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of crust

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

History and Etymology for crust

Middle English crouste, cruste, borrowed from Anglo-French & Latin; Anglo-French cruste, crouste, going back to Latin crusta "hard coating or surface layer, shell of an arthropod or crustacean, mineral flake, stone slab used in paneling," perhaps, if going back to *krus-to- "something crushed or pounded into a hard layer," from a zero-grade nominal derivative of Indo-European *kreu̯s- "beat, crush, pound," whence also Old English hruse "earth, ground," Old High German roso, rosa "crust, layer of ice" (going back to Germanic *hrusōn-) — more at anacrusis

Note: The hypothetical base *krus-to- is suggested by Michiel de Vaan, Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the Other Italic Languages (Leiden: Brill, 2008), p. 147, though the older handbooks (Walde-Hoffman, Ernout-Meillet) tend to support a connection with Greek krýos "icy cold, frost" and other derivatives, going back to a presumed homonymous *krus- (see cryo-). As de Vaan points out, however, Latin crusta does not mean "ice." The original sense of the Germanic noun *hrusōn- is not certain. Greek krýstallos "ice, rock crystal" is almost certainly unrelated (see crystal entry 1).

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More Definitions for crust

crust

noun
How to pronounce crust (audio)

English Language Learners Definition of crust

: the hard outer surface of bread
: the outside part of a pie
: the bread that is used to make a pizza

See the full definition for crust in the English Language Learners Dictionary

crust

noun
\ ˈkrəst How to pronounce crust (audio) \

Kids Definition of crust

1 : the hardened outside surface of bread
2 : a hard dry piece of bread
3 : the pastry cover of a pie
4 : a hard outer covering or surface layer a crust of snow
5 : the outer part of the earth

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