(v. t.) To break into small pieces; to cause to fall in pieces.
(v. i.) To fall into small pieces; to break or part into small fragments; hence, to fall to decay or ruin; to become disintegrated; to perish.
Example Sentences:
(1) The breathtaking response of the geosphere as the great ice sheets crumbled might be considered as providing little more than an intriguing insight into the prehistoric workings of our world, were it not for the fact that our planet is once again in the throes an extraordinary climatic transformation – this time brought about by human activities.
(2) Many of Long’s pieces are fragile and fleeting: a stripe of un-mown grass in an otherwise close cropped lawn at the Henry Moore foundation , a misty circle in Scotland that lasted only until the day warmed up, a stripe of green grass left by plucking daisies, or paintings in wet mud that dry out and crumble.
(3) Now the fabric of the school is visibly crumbling: roofs leak and skylights are broken; the estimated cost of repairs is £1m.
(4) And yet I sense a crumbling of the monumental Boris facade, the great artificial construct designed to make him prime minister, for reasons I have never understood.
(5) In between, the small downtown area is a shell of empty, crumbling shop fronts and derelict, boarded-up houses interspersed with the odd bar, ramshackle residential street and tracts of wasteland.
(6) They watch her life crumble as she's subjected to further turmoil through pregnancy or marital crisis.
(7) Yet we invest less in sport than other developed countries - £36 per head compared to France's £109 - and our facilities are ageing and crumbling.
(8) Diane James offers crumbling Ukip a safe pair of hands Read more James said she had not yet formalised her nomination as leader, meaning that she had never formally taken over from her predecessor, Nigel Farage, following her landslide election on 16 September.
(9) 2 Crumble the blue cheese into the porridge and then cook on a medium heat, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until it thickens to your liking.
(10) Serves 4 100g butter, at room temperature 150g flour 50g ground almonds 30g suet 1 egg yolk 50g cooked chestnuts, chopped 5 tbsp chopped fresh thyme Salt and black pepper For the leeks 1kg leeks, trimmed 100g butter Salt and pepper 200ml double cream 1 tsp nutmeg 1 To make the crumble topping, work the butter into the flour until it resembles coarse breadcrumbs, then add the ground almonds and suet.
(11) "We inherited a crumbling infrastructure, starved of funding; Victorian schools with rundown gyms, and thousands of playing fields sold off," Sutcliffe said.
(12) 400g cooked or tinned butterbeans 1 tsp ground cumin 10ml lemon juice ¼ clove garlic, peeled and finely minced 1 small handful picked flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped 1 tbsp plain flour (gluten-free flour also works fine) 1 tsp salt 1 egg 1 spring onion, trimmed and finely sliced 50g breadcrumbs 100g feta (or other crumbly goat's or sheep's cheese) Put the butterbeans, cumin, lemon juice, garlic, parsley, flour, salt and egg in a food processor and blitz to a coarse paste: you don't want the mix fully pureed, otherwise the burgers will be too wet and will fall apart on the grill.
(13) Fortune Magazine predicted that “ the apparent M-Pesa monopoly may be set to crumble ”, indicating that the new licensing regime could open up the market long dominated by Safaricom.
(14) Supporters say Luzhkov transformed Moscow from a crumbling communist shell into a vibrant metropolis.
(15) Ruth Joseph and Sarah Nathan's crumbly little almond and lemon tarts are the perfect example of its charms, to my mind – not too sweet, not too sour, just intensely, deliciously zesty.
(16) When President Obama stands up and says - as he did when he addressed the nation in February 2011 about Libya - that "the United States will continue to stand up for freedom, stand up for justice, and stand up for the dignity of all people", it should trigger nothing but a scornful fit of laughter, not credulous support (by the way, not that anyone much cares any more, but here's what is happening after the Grand Success of the Libya Intervention: "Tribal and historical loyalties still run deep in Libya, which is struggling to maintain central government control in a country where armed militia wield real power and meaningful systems of law and justice are lacking after the crumbling of Gaddafi's eccentric personal rule").
(17) At the beginning, David Cameron spoke respectfully of "President Mubarak" and the "Egyptian government"; by this weekend, the prime minister is using the much more pejorative "regime" to describe the crumbling autocracy.
(18) He begins describing the crumbling wall of mud that enveloped him, the image of his young daughter propelling him to fight to the surface and take his first breath of air.
(19) My partner and I withstood the onslaught, but eventually the relationship crumbled under the pressure.
(20) Pour the chopped tomatoes over the peaches and onions, add chopped coriander, cumin and a finely crumbled stock cube and stir in.
Tumble
Definition:
(v. i.) To roll over, or to and fro; to throw one's self about; as, a person on pain tumbles and tosses.
(v. i.) To roll down; to fall suddenly and violently; to be precipitated; as, to tumble from a scaffold.
(v. i.) To play tricks by various movements and contortions of the body; to perform the feats of an acrobat.
(v. t.) To turn over; to turn or throw about, as for examination or search; to roll or move in a rough, coarse, or unceremonious manner; to throw down or headlong; to precipitate; -- sometimes with over, about, etc.; as, to tumble books or papers.
(v. t.) To disturb; to rumple; as, to tumble a bed.
(n.) Act of tumbling, or rolling over; a fall.
Example Sentences:
(1) Gallic wine sales in the UK have been tumbling for the past 20 years, but the news that France, once the largest exporter to these shores, has slipped behind Australia, the United States, Italy and now South Africa will have producers gnawing their knuckles in frustration.
(2) China’s stock market rout Shanghai stocks Chinese shares have tumbled in recent weeks against the backdrop of a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy .
(3) Spain's IBEX has tumbled more than 2%, despite its central bank predicting that the country's recession is over.
(4) The chemotactic receptor-transducer proteins of Escherichia coli are responsible for directing the swimming behavior of cells by signaling for either straight swimming or tumbling in response to chemostimuli.
(5) "With the full backing of British Gymnastics, the trainers who helped take Smith and Tweddle to Olympic glory are ready to turn the nation's pop stars, actors, newsreaders and chefs into heroes of the high bars and titans of the tumble track," it added.
(6) The oil price tumbled by as much as $3.25 a barrel on Tuesday after the world's biggest commodity trader called the top of the market for crude and a range of other commodities – at least for the time being.
(7) Annual savings in tonnes of CO 2 Install 2 kilowatt solar PV panels 0.4 Buy a new A++ refrigerator if yours is more than 4 years old, and only use a small-screen TV 0.1 Use LED or fluorescent lights where you currently have halogen lights installed 0.1 Buy an automated system to turn off appliances when not in use; get a meter that shows actual energy use and use it to monitor your household 0.1 Only use your washing machine and dishwasher when full to capacity and at lowest temperature 0.1 Never use the tumble dryer 0.1 Get rid of the freezer if you can, and replace your small appliances with "eco" varieties 0.1 Car (1.5 tonnes of CO 2 ) There is one car for every two people in the UK, and each one travels an average of about 9,000 miles a year.
(8) Addition of a micellar solution of oleoylphosphocholine had no influence on the motional freedom of the tryptophyl residue but approximately doubled the correlation time of the phenyl ring, indicating an increase of the effective volume of the tumbling particle due to lipid-protein interaction.
(9) Bring a brilliant idea to life and watch the money tumble in.
(10) Russia’s credit rating has been downgraded to junk status for the first time in a decade due to the collapsing oil price, the tumbling value of the rouble and sanctions imposed because of its intervention in Ukraine.
(11) Similarly, a functioning electron transport pathway was shown to be essential for the tumbling response of S. typhimurium and E. coli to intense light (290 to 530 nm).
(12) Facebook Twitter Pinterest Nigel Pearson has words with Crystal Palace’s James McArthur after their unfortunate tumble led to an exchange.
(13) ESR spectra obtained after covalent incorporation of SL-2N3-ATP into Ca2+-ATPase and removal of freely tumbling SL-2N3-ATP exhibited motionally constrained species indicative of distinct and possibly adjacent ATP-binding sites.
(14) The main symptom "incoordination" (ataxia, asynergy, paresis, paralysis) is used by us more precisely only in case of impairment of nervous system by neoplastic infiltrations and does not signify as possible symptoms of general physical weakness, for example faltering, staggering, tumbling or lameness.
(15) Having been on the pitch for only three minutes, Oscar was slipped through one on one by Eden Hazard and knocked the ball past Davis before tumbling to the ground.
(16) UK unemployment has tumbled to its lowest level since 2008, when the fall of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers brought the global economy to the brink of collapse.
(17) Then King Henrik is hit on the ensuing play by Dustin Brown, who had been hit by Marc Staal and went tumbling - all are OK.
(18) 6.39pm BST AstraZeneca shares tumble as investors vent their disappointment over Pfizer bid - closing summary AstraZeneca's site in Macclesfield, Cheshire, today.
(19) He feels the need to lift the mood partly because he is concerned that talk of a return to recession could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy as tumbling consumer confidence reduces demand, increases worklessness and lowers demand.
(20) From a comparison of the temperature dependence of the probe's tumbling rate in model aqueous systems and in the muscle we concluded that in the muscle the probe was undergoing fast exchange between sites of different mobility.