crust

Borrowed from Latin crusta (“hard outer covering”) via Anglo-Norman and Old French cruste, from Proto-Indo-European *krustós (“hardened”), from *krews- (“to form a crust, begin to freeze”), related to Old Norse hroðr (“scurf”), Old English hruse (“earth”), Old High German hrosa (“crust, ice”), Latvian kruvesis (“frozen mud”), Ancient Greek κρύος (krúos, “frost, icy cold”), κρύσταλλος (krústallos, “crystal, ice”), Avestan 𐬑𐬭𐬎𐬰𐬛𐬭𐬀-‎ (xruzdra-, “hard”), Sanskrit क्रूड् (krūḍ, “thicken, make hard”)

• IPA^(key): /kɹʌst/
• Rhymes: -ʌst

crust (countable and uncountable, plural crusts)

1. A more solid, dense or hard layer on a surface or boundary.
2. The external, hardened layer of certain foodstuffs, including most types of bread, fried meat, etc.
3. An outer layer composed of pastry
   • Dryden

     Th' impenetrable crust thy teeth defies.

   • Macaulay

     They […] made the crust for the venison pasty.

4. The bread-like base of a pizza.
5. (geology) The outermost layer of the lithosphere of the Earth.
6. The shell of crabs, lobsters, etc.
7. (uncountable) Nerve, gall.

   You've got a lot of crust standing there saying that.

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, OCLC 1227855:

     “Oh?” she said. “So you have decided to revise my guest list for me? You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out. “Audacity,” I said, throwing her the line. “The audacity to dictate to me who I shall have in my house.” It should have been “whom”, but I let it go. “You have the –” “Crust.” “– the immortal rind,” she amended, and I had to admit it was stronger, “to tell me whom” – she got it right that time – “I may entertain at Brinkley Court and who” – wrong again – “I may not.”

8. crust punk (a subgenre of punk music)

• crusted
• crusty
• encrust

crust (third-person singular simple present crusts, present participle crusting, simple past and past participle crusted)

1. (transitive) To cover with a crust.
   • Boyle

     The whole body is crusted over with ice.

   • Felton

     Their minds are crusted over, like diamonds in the rock.

2. (intransitive) To form a crust.

• cruts, curst