Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[BMO]

1.The house crumpled.
2.The house crumbled.

Are they the same? Can you use either word to describe the Roman Empire collapsed?

Thanks.

[cgage]

Crumbled is the more appropriate term. The Roman Empire crumbled. The American Empire is crumbling.
Crumple is a term used to describe wrinkling or otherwise destroying a small object. Example: a crumpled newspaper.

[BMO]

Thanks, havn't seen you for a while, welcome back.


The junta government finally crumpled. (Correct?)

From Infoplease:


�v.i.
1. to contract into wrinkles; shrink; shrivel.
2. to give way suddenly; collapse: The bridge crumpled under the weight of the heavy trucks.



bmo

[cgage]

You could say crumpled but crumbled is much more common. Crumpled usually refers to small things.

[BMO]

Thanks again.

bmo

[advoca]

BMO.

May I throw in my pennyworth?

If you crumple something such as paper or cloth it is squashed and becomes full of untidy creases and folds.
She crumpled the paper in her hand.
The front and rear of the car will crumple during a collision.
Nancy looked at the note angrily, then crumpled it up and threw it in a nearby wastepaper basket.

Therefore, the Junta could not crumple. It did not become full of creases and folds.

If something crumbles it breaks into a lot of small pieces, or parts of it are breaking off.
Under the pressure, the brick crumbled into fragments.
Roughly crumble the cheese into a bowl.
The high-rise apartment blocks built in the 1960s are crumbling.
The cliffs were estimated to be crumbling into the sea at the rate of 1 meter an hour.

The Junta was crumbling. It was breaking into pieces and losing its solidarity.

[BMO]

So you would say the Roman Empire crumbled, rather than crumpled. Right?

[advoca]

[BMO]

Thank you so much.

bmo

[Bob S.]

[BMO]

Ok, thanks. I think crumble implies disintegration, e.g., as a result of a gas explosion. Crumple is falling down, e.g., support columns broken as a result of being under pressure. I have no problem with this distinction.

But I think both are synonymous when describing a country or regime collapses.

Below is from www.dictionary.com:
CRUMPLE:

v. tr.
To crush together or press into wrinkles; rumple.
To cause to collapse.

v. intr.
To become wrinkled.
To collapse: a regime that finally crumpled.

================================
I think you can say a country, regime, marriage crumbles or crumples. This is what I like to find out.


By the way, there is a saying: that is the way the cookies crumble, is that it? Does it mean how thing happens the ways they do, we can't do anything about it?

Thanks.

bmo