crust

noun

\ ˈkrəst

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

Other Words from crust Synonyms Example Sentences Learn More about crust

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Other Words from crust

crust verb

crustal \ ˈkrə-stᵊl

\ adjective

crustless \ ˈkrəs(t)-ləs

\ 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.

Recent Examples on the Web

Behind oxygen, silicon is the most abundant element on Earth, comprising 25.7 percent of the Earth's crust by weight. — David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, "Scientists Envision Replacing Batteries with a Molten Silicon 'Sun in a Box'," 6 Dec. 2018 Sprinkle sugar-flour mixture all over bottom of crust. — Lisa Ludwinski, WSJ, "Pies That Bind: Thanksgiving Recipes From the Heartland," 15 Nov. 2018 That's lightweight compared to the average density of Earth's crust, which is 3.0 times that of water. — NBC News, "Here's the scientific explanation for that 'alien spaceship' on Mars," 23 June 2018 This section of the continent is known as a shield or craton, a very old and stable portion of the continental crust. — Brigit Katz, Smithsonian, "Earthquakes Rumble Under East Antarctica Much More Frequently Than Thought," 6 June 2018 Their solution is to make a kind of pie with chicken meat pressed down into a kind of crust made of sausage. — New York Times, "Red-Sauce Italian Cooking Finds a Future at Don Angie," 29 May 2018 Another instrument aboard the Europa Clipper—there will be nine total—will use radar to probe through surface to look at the depth and density of the crust and the liquid water below it. — Eric Niiler, WIRED, "How NASA Will Look for Geysers (and Life) on Europa," 14 May 2018 The trail ends at Alum Bluff, the largest exposed section of the earth's crust in Florida. — Amy Aumick, OrlandoSentinel.com, "Explore Florida's Liberty County: Gorgeous views of the Apalachicola River," 7 May 2018 The shoebox space does brisk business at lunch, dispensing pork pies, sausage rolls and pâtés en croûte (pâtés baked in a pastry crust) to City desk jockeys. — Jay Cheshes, WSJ, "Where to Find London’s Premium Pies," 23 Jan. 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.

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).