crust

noun

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\ 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

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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 Choose from the thick-crust Siciliana, traditional tomato and cheese or even a gluten-free version. — John-john Williams Iv, baltimoresun.com, "5 pizzas in the Baltimore area you need to try," 22 Dec. 2020 For Sevil Dungill in Chicago, his family's battle – and to an extent his city's – with the virus began with thin-crust pizza and embraces of condolence from an old family friend. — USA Today, "How the South and Southwest became the global epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic," 10 Dec. 2020 Bella Hadid with her Aeon Flux future-past look and Princess Diana, firmly entrenched in the past with pie-crust collars and alluringly off frocks. — Steff Yotka, Vogue, "Google’s Yearly Data Proves People Are Dressing More Radically Than You Think," 10 Dec. 2020 African American babysitter Emira encounters escalating weirdness when her upper-crust white employer finds disastrous new ways to deploy her good intentions. — Sydney Williams, NBC News, "Best books 2020: Winners of the Goodreads Choice Awards," 9 Dec. 2020 International thin-crust pizzeria chain Piola will mark the grand opening of its new Hollywood location (4961 Sheridan St., #37A in the Sheridan Plaza) by giving away 1,000 12-inch brick-oven pies between Monday, Nov. 9, and Saturday, Nov. 14. — Phillip Valys, sun-sentinel.com, "Pizza chain Piola giving away 1,000 free pizzas in Hollywood - and there’s no limit," 6 Nov. 2020 The thin-crust rectangular pizza is covered in corn and cotija cheese with garlic cream and chipotle sauces drizzled on top. — Shaena Montanari, The Arizona Republic, "Downtown Phoenix has a new spot to enjoy beer and pizza on a patio. Here's what to order," 5 Nov. 2020 Pop the lid off, watch that little puff of steam rise skyward, and cook the loaf uncovered in your oven for the last 10 minutes as the crust becomes a beautiful golden brown. — Joe Ray, Wired, "This $40 Cast-Iron Pot Is the Secret to Baking a Perfect Loaf," 3 Jan. 2021 Lining the crust with foil and dropping in pie weights can help hold the dough in place. — Paul Stephen, ExpressNews.com, "Paul’s Cooking Tips: Everything you need to know about pie plates," 2 Jan. 2021

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).