- 1simple and not very accurate but giving a general idea of something In crude terms, the causes of mental illness seem to be of three main kinds.
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- 2(of objects or works of art) simply made, not showing much skill or attention to detail a crude drawing of a face
- 3(of people or the way they behave) offensive or rude, especially about sex synonym vulgar crude jokes/language
- 4[usually before noun] (of oil and other natural substances) in its natural state, before it has been treated with chemicals crude oil/metal
adverb a crudely drawn ship To put it crudely, the poor are going without food so that the rich can drive cars.
noun [uncountable]See crude in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Check pronunciation: crude