crumby, a.
(ˈkrʌmɪ)
[f. crumb n. + -y. The earlier spelling was crummy, which is retained in some senses.]
1. Of the nature of crumb: see crummy 2.
| 1767 Byron's Voy. 134 [Bread fruit] when gathered green, and roasted..has its inside soft, tender, white, and crumby, like bread. |
2. Full of crumbs; strewed with crumbs.
| 1731 Bailey, vol. II, Crummy. 1739 Walpole Let. to R. West 20 July, Round a littered table, in a crumby room. 1873 Mrs. Whitney Other Girls (1876) 153 Table cloths left..dragging and crumby. |
3. slang. (Freq. crummy.) Lousy; filthy, dirty, untidy; inferior, shoddy, distasteful. Hence ˈcrumbiness, ˈcrumminess.
| 1859 Hotten Dict. Slang 27 Crummy-doss, a lousy or filthy bed. 1889 Barrère & Leland Dict. Slang I. 283/2 Crummy (army), dirty; applied amongst soldiers to a man's appearance. 1899 Kipling Stalky 73 ‘It's a crummy place...’ They crawled out, brushed one another clean. 1931 G. Irwin Amer. Tramp & Underworld Slang 58 Crummy, verminous; undesirable; inferior or cheap. 1932 J. Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen 3 Feeling crummy in the baggy civies, he walked slowly. 1949 H. E. Bates Jacaranda Tree vii. 66 The whole thing's a bit crummy. 1949 Here & Now (N.Z.) Nov. 27/2 The authentic crumminess of the downtown settings. 1956 R. Fuller Image of Society vi. 156 The place soon got to look crumby. 1958 Spectator 30 May 705/2 A A crumby seducer. Ibid., Crumby phoneyness. Ibid., There is nowhere free from crumbiness and sex. 1969 I. & P. Opie Children's Games viii. 237 The game has been taken up by the physical training instructors under such crummy names as ‘Poison Circle Tag’. |