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

Spread half of the red cream mixture over crust in pan. —Sabrina Weiss, People.com, 23 Oct. 2024

Overturning small portions of Earth’s crust revealed tiny tube worm larvae as well as some tube worms that reached 1.6 feet (0.5 meter) long. —Ashley Strickland, CNN, 19 Oct. 2024

DiGiorno Thanksgiving Pizza returning for a limited time DiGiorno's creation, introduced in 2023, puts traditional Thanksgiving dishes on a pizza crust with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses. —Chad Murphy, The Enquirer, 16 Oct. 2024

Nanaimo bars call upon almonds in the crust layer, but Prayer Bars use pecans or walnuts typically. —Darcy Lenz, Southern Living, 9 Oct. 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
• the upper crust
• 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