crust

noun

ˈkrəst 

1

a

: the hardened exterior or surface part of bread

b

: a piece of this or of bread grown dry or hard

2

a

: 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

crust verb

crustal

ˈkrə-stᵊl 

adjective

crustless

ˈkrəs(t)-ləs 

adjective

Synonyms

• audaciousness
• audacity
• brashness
• brass
• brassiness
• brazenness
• cheek
• cheekiness
• chutzpah
• chutzpa
• hutzpah
• hutzpa
• effrontery
• face
• gall
• nerve
• nerviness
• pertness
• presumption
• presumptuousness
• sauce
• sauciness
• temerity

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

Bake empanadas for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crust is a picture-perfect golden brown. —Gretchen McKay, The Mercury News, 10 Apr. 2024

But unlike a peach pie with a crust on the top and bottom, peach cobbler features a filling with a batter (or sometimes crust) only on the top. —Patricia S York, Southern Living, 9 Apr. 2024

Another option is to buy hemp seed flour, which is naturally gluten-free and low in calories compared to wheat flour, and it can be used to make high-protein crepes, cookies, breads, rolls, and pizza crusts. —Alessandra Signorelli, Vogue, 4 Apr. 2024

The upper 10 kilometers of the Earth’s crust contains vast geothermal reserves, essentially awaiting human energy consumption to begin to tap into its unstinting power output—which itself yields no greenhouse gasses. —IEEE Spectrum, 29 Mar. 2024

The lot is formed into a patty, gains crust from the grill and gets packed into a pleasantly sweet brioche bun. —Tom Sietsema, Washington Post, 26 Mar. 2024

The pies are cooked in a 900°F Stefano Ferrara oven and come out with a puffy crust with charred edges and a delicate center. —Rachel Bernhard, Journal Sentinel, 19 Mar. 2024

Blaze Pizza: Any 11-inch pizza (excluding crust upgrades) for $3.14. —Grace Tucker, The Enquirer, 13 Mar. 2024

Hash Brown-Crust Veggie Pie Combine several brunch staples in one appealing package with a quiche featuring a potato crust made with frozen hash browns. —Becky Krystal, Washington Post, 30 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

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).

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing crust

• earn a/one's crust
• upper crust
• the upper crust

Kids Definition

crust

noun

ˈkrəst 

1

a

: the hardened outside surface of bread

b

: a piece of dry hard bread

2

: the pastry cover of a pie

3

a

: a hard surface layer

a crust of snow

b

: the outer part of the earth

crustal

ˈkrəs-təl 

adjective

Medical Definition

crust

noun

ˈkrəst 

1

: scab sense 2

2

: an encrusting deposit of serum, cellular debris, and bacteria present over or about lesions in some skin diseases (as impetigo or eczema)

crust verb