different between crumble vs debacle

English

Alternative forms

• crimble (dialectal)

Etymology

From earlier crymble, crimble, from Middle English *crymblen, kremelen, from Old English *crymlan (“to crumble”), from *crymel (“a small crumb; crumble”), diminutive of Old English cruma (“crumb”), equivalent to crumb +? -le (diminutive suffix). Compare Dutch kruimelen (“to crumble”), German Low German krömmeln (“to crumble”), German Krümel, diminutive of German Krume, German krümeln, krümmeln (“to crumble”). Alteration of vowel due to analogy with crumb.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /?k??mb?l/, [?k??mb??l], [?k??mbl?]
• Rhymes: -?mb?l

Verb

crumble (third-person singular simple present crumbles, present participle crumbling, simple past and past participle crumbled)

1. (intransitive, often figuratively) To fall apart; to disintegrate.

   The empire crumbled when the ruler's indiscretions came to light.

2. (transitive) To break into crumbs.

   We crumbled some bread into the water.

3. (transitive) To mix (ingredients such as flour and butter) in such a way as to form crumbs.

   Using your fingers, crumble the ingredients with the fingertips, lifting in an upward motion, until the mixture is sandy and resembles large breadcrumbs.

Translations

Noun

crumble (countable and uncountable, plural crumbles)

2. A dessert of British origin containing stewed fruit topped with a crumbly mixture of fat, flour, and sugar.

   Synonyms: crisp, crunch

Translations

Further reading

• crumble on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• Clumber

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English crumble.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?œm.bœl/, /k?œ?bl/

Noun

crumble m (plural crumbles)

1. (France) crumble (dessert)

Spanish

Noun

crumble m (plural crumbles)

1. crumble

English

Alternative forms

• débâcle
• debâcle (rare)
• débacle (rare)

Etymology

From French débâcle, from débâcler (“to unbar; unleash”) from prefix dé- (“un-”) + bâcler (“to dash, bind, bar, block”) [perhaps from unattested Middle French and Old French *bâcler, *bacler (“to hold in place, prop a door or window open”)], from Vulgar Latin *bacculare, from Latin baculum (“rod, staff used for support”), from Proto-Indo-European *bak-.

Also attested in Old French desbacler (“to clear a harbour by getting ships unloaded to make room for incoming ships with lading”) and in Occitan baclar (“to close”).

The hypothesis of a derivation from Middle Dutch bakkelen (“to freeze artificially, lock in place”), from bakken (“to stick, stick hard, glue together”) has been discredited by the lack of attestation of bakkelen in Middle Dutch and by it having only the meaning "freeze superficially" in Dutch.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /de??b??.k?l/, /d??b??.k?l/
• (US) IPA^(key): /d??b?.k?l/, /d??b?.k?l/, /de??b?.k?l/
• ,
• Rhymes: -??k?l
• Hyphenation: de?ba?cle

Noun

debacle (plural debacles)

1. An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously, often with humiliating consequences. [from early 19th c.]
   • 1952, Maimonides, translated by Boaz Cohen, Epistle to Yemen page 5,

     The event proved to be a great debacle for the partisans of this prognosticator.

   • 1996, Richard L. Canby, "SOF: An Alternative Perspective on Doctrine", in Schultz et al (eds), Roles And Missions of SOF In The Aftermath Of The Cold War, p. 188,

     The result is a military approach which maximizes political tensions with Russia […] and lays the ground for a military debacle.

   • 2007, BP pipeline failure: hearing before the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, "Statement by Peter Van Tuyn", p. 46,

     The BP Prudhoe Bay debacle [the Prudhoe Bay oil spill] thus provides but the latest in a long line of reasons why leasing this region of the NPR-A is a bad idea.

2. (ecology) A breaking up of a natural dam, usually made of ice, by a river and the ensuing rush of water.
   • 1836, Henry De La Beche, How to Observe: Geology, p. 69

     […] so that in extreme cases the latter may even be dammed up for a time, and a debacle be the consequence, when the main river overcomes the resistance opposed to it, […]

   • 1837, John Lee Comstock, Outlines of Geology, p. 51

     For several months after the debacle just described, the river Dranse, having no settled channel, shifted its position continually […]

   • 1872, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, p. 425,

     When this débâcle commences […] , the masses of ice, drifting with the current and unable to pass, are hurled upon those already soldered together; thus an enormous barrier is formed […]

Usage notes

• The older spelling with accents is no longer listed at all or only mentioned as an alternative in the online versions of most major British and American dictionaries.

Synonyms

• (An event or enterprise that ends suddenly and disastrously): fiasco

Translations

References

• 2005, Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson, The Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised), Oxford University Press, ?ISBN
• 1998, The Dorling Kindersley Illustrated Oxford Dictionary, Dorling Kindersley Limited and Oxford University Press, ?ISBN, page 211
• 2006, Ed. Michael Allaby, A Dictionary of Ecology, Oxford University Press, ?ISBN
• 1999, Ed. Robert Allen, Pocket Fowler's Modern English Usage, Oxford University Press, ?ISBN
• 1999, Ed. Jennifer Speake, The Oxford Essential Dictionary of Foreign Terms in English, Oxford University Press, ?ISBN

Anagrams

• belaced

Dutch

Alternative forms

• (before 1996) debâcle

Etymology

Borrowing of French débâcle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /de??ba?.k?l/, /d??ba?.k?l/
• Hyphenation: de?ba?cle
• Rhymes: -a?k?l

Noun

debacle m or f or n (plural debacles, diminutive debacletje n)

1. debacle

Spanish

Noun

debacle f (plural debacles)

1. debacle