crust
/krʌst
/noun
1The tough outer part of a loaf of bread: a sandwich with the crusts cut off [mass noun]: I tore off several pieces of crust from the loaf...
- They gave their Great Niece the red carpet treatment, cooking up a feast of scones with jam and cream, fruit cake, sponge cake, Anzac biscuits and a genteel plate of sandwiches with the crusts cut off.
- It was a classic British summer tea; small smoked salmon sandwiches with the crusts cut off; tiny scones with jam and cream the size of a 10p piece and miniature strawberry tarts.
- And they all traipsed out for another round of triangular sandwiches with the crusts cut off and a wee cup of tea served in the best china.
Synonyms
outer layer/part, outside, exterior;
heel, end, remnant
1.1A hard, dry scrap of bread: a kindly old woman might give her a crust...
- How often have restaurant forgotten that bread is part of the meal and have given their customers stale, hard crusts.
- Before long he had me saving scraps of bacon and stray crusts.
- Others let their babies chomp down on their fingers, or offer dried crusts of bread or peeled carrot sticks (stay nearby in case of choking).
2A hardened layer, coating, or deposit on the surface of something soft: a crust of snow...
- Many canopy trees have protruding crowns, and light availability at the surface of the canopy crust should also differ depending on the position relative to the apex of the crown.
- Despite its thin crust of moderate strength, the clay becomes much softer with depth.
- I had the warm chocolate tart, with a soft crust hiding its delectable molten interior, while a chocolate sauce kept the whole mélange from being cloying.
Synonyms
covering, layer, coating, cover, coat, sheet, thickness, film, skin;
topping, caking;
encrustation, scab
rare concretion
2.1A layer of pastry covering a pie.Sometimes this was encased in a rich crust of pastry or dough similar to saffron bread, a form reminiscent of the Scottish black bun....
- Baked in the oven under a pastry crust and served hot with boiled potatoes and a green vegetable it's a dish fit for a king.
- You may already be familiar with its crispy crust pastry and mildly spiced creamy filling but now you can prepare this tasty French delicacy in your own kitchen.
2.2The outermost layer of rock of which a planet consists, especially the part of the earth above the mantle: the earth’s crust...
- In these areas of the Earth's crust, magmatic rocks lie only a short distance below the sea floor.
- Magmas erupted in continental volcanic arcs typically contain components from many sources in the crust, lithospheric mantle and asthenosphere.
- If the cracks extend deep enough, the seawater can come into contact with mantle rocks that underlie the crust.
2.3A deposit of tartrates and other substances formed in wine aged in the bottle, especially port.
3British informal A living or livelihood: I’ve been earning a crust wherever I can...
- The challenge for a society is: how do we teach all our kids to value the future so they have a fair chance of earning a crust later on?
- It's just there's a distinction between earning a crust by playing what is ostensibly a game and picking up a salary in the black art of sell, sell, sell.
- Instead, he simply he packed a bag and turfed up in France, playing part-time football and earning a crust working in a garage.
Synonyms
living, livelihood, means of subsistence, income, daily bread
informal bread and butter
verb [no object]
1Form into a hard outer layer: the blisters eventually crust over...
- Nickel allergies cause symptoms like itching, crusting, and blisters.
- This can be especially true if a hard rain after weeding causes crusting.
- The breast is stuffed with Saskatoon berry cream cheese, then crusted with crushed pecans.
1.1 [with object] Cover with a hard outer layer: the burns crusted his cheek...
- It had taken us longer than expected to make the trip back and we were both a total mess with a thick layer of dirt crusting our clothes and flowers stuck in our hair, which was probably every where by now.
- When I got tired of that I took up fire-gazing, watching the flames crusting the coals with rosy spark edgings.
- Next morning the valley is crusted in frost as I find the turn-off and wind up 11 km through 135 bends, nine of them hairpins, to reach Snow Farm.
Derivatives
crustal
/ adjective (Geology ) ...- Throughout the world, most of the earthquake activities are confined to plate margin associated with crustal deformation.
- Glaciation and crustal activity have given the island its unique shape.
- At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is a daisy chain of volcanoes, faults and crustal fractures.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French crouste, from Latin crusta 'rind, shell, crust'.
custard from Late Middle English:
A custard was originally a pie. Spelled crustarde or custarde, this was an open pie that contained meat or fruit in a spiced or sweetened sauce thickened with eggs. Over time the name gradually came to be applied to the sauce rather than the pie itself. The origin of the word was Old French crouste ‘a crust’ from Latin crusta ‘rind, shell, crust’, which is also where our word crust (Middle English) comes from.