crunch
English edit
Etymology edit
From earlier craunch, cranch, of imitative origin.
Pronunciation edit
Verb edit
crunch (third-person singular simple present crunches, present participle crunching, simple past and past participle crunched)
- To crush something, especially food, with a noisy crackling sound.
- When I came home, Susan was watching TV with her feet up on the couch, crunching a piece of celery.
- 1816, Lord Byron, The Siege of Corinth:
- And their white tusks crunch'd o'er the whiter skull,
- To be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.
- Beetles crunched beneath the men's heavy boots as they worked.
- (slang) To calculate or otherwise process (e.g. to crunch numbers: to perform mathematical calculations). Presumably from the sound made by mechanical calculators.
- That metadata makes it much easier for the search engine to crunch the data for queries.
- To grind or press with violence and noise.
- 1854, E.K. Kane, “The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: a personal Narrative”, in The Living Age[1], page 517:
- The sound of our vessel crunching her way through the new ice is not easy to be described.
- 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:
- The departure was not unduly prolonged. […] Within the door Mrs. Spoker hastily imparted to Mrs. Love a few final sentiments on the subject of Divine Intention in the disposition of buckets; farewells and last commiserations; a deep, guttural instigation to the horse; and the wheels of the waggonette crunched heavily away into obscurity.
- To emit a grinding or crunching noise.
- 1849, Henry James, Confidence:
- There were sounds in the air above his head – sounds of the crunching and rattling of the loose, smooth stones as his neighbors moved about […]
- (automotive, transitive) To cause the gears to emit a crunching sound by releasing the clutch before the gears are properly synchronised.
- (computing, transitive) To compress (data) using a particular algorithm, so that it can be restored by decrunching.
- 1993, Michael Barsoom, “[comp.sys.amiga.announce] PackIt Announcement”, in comp.archives (Usenet):
- PackIt will not crunch executables, unless told to do so.
- (software engineering, slang, transitive) To make employees work overtime in order to meet a deadline in the development of a project.
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to crush something with a noisy crackling sound
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to be crushed with a noisy crackling sound
slang: to calculate or otherwise process
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Noun edit
crunch (plural crunches)
- A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.
- A critical moment or event.
- 1985, John C. L. Gibson, Job, page 237:
- The friends, on the contrary, argue that Job does not "know", that only God knows; yet, when it comes to the crunch, they themselves seem to know as much as God knows: for example, that Job is a guilty sinner.
- A problem that leads to a crisis.
- 1994, Martin H. Wolfson, Financial Crises: Understanding the Postwar U.S. Experience[2], page 22:
- The crunch is characterized by extremely depressed liquidity and deteriorated balance sheet positions for households, corporations, and financial institutions […]
- (exercise) A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.
- (software engineering, slang) The overtime work required to catch up and finish a project, usually in the final weeks of development before release.
- A dessert consisting of a crunchy topping with fruit underneath.
- (chiefly US) The symbol #.
- (cooking, generally in the plural) A small piece created by crushing; a piece of material with a friable or crunchy texture.
- 2014 December 18, “Fluffernutter and Nutella Yule Log”, in The Lovely Crazy[3]:
- Smear the peanut butter, fluff, and a bit of the nutella all over, even to the very edge of the wrap. Sprinkle the crunches on top and then start rolling from one of the non-trimmed edges
- (slang) A shortage.
- 2021 April 22, “Covid: India sets global record for new cases amid oxygen shortage”, in BBC News[4]:
- But a supply crunch, which is already affecting the drive, could slow it down further.
Synonyms edit
(symbol):
Coordinate terms edit
- (abdominal exercise): sit-up, trunk curl
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
a noisy crackling sound
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critical moment or event
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form of abdominal exercise based on a sit-up
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Italian edit
Etymology edit
Unadapted borrowing from English crunch.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
crunch m (invariable)
References edit
- ^ crunch in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)
Spanish edit
Noun edit
crunch m (plural crunches)
- crunch (exercise)