crumbled

Crumbled is the past participle of the verb crumble and functions as an adjective to describe something that has been reduced to small pieces or has fallen into ruin. It can refer to physical material, such as bread or cookies that have broken into crumbs, or to structures, surfaces, or plans that have deteriorated or collapsed. In culinary use, crumbled describes food that is broken into fragments rather than kept in larger chunks.

As a verb, crumble means to break or fall apart into small fragments, or to fail gradually. The form crumbled denotes a completed action in the past or a completed state: "The old wall crumbled after years of weathering." "The cookies crumbled in the jar." "Their plans crumbled under pressure."

Crumbled is often used in figurative language to describe institutions, eras, or relationships that have lost strength or coherence, such as an empire that has crumbled. The phrase conjures a gradual, irreversible decline rather than a sudden break. The term is closely related to crumble and to the adjective crumbly, which describes a texture.

See also: crumble, crumbly, crumb, crumbling.