crunch
Plural: crunches
Noun
- the sound of something crunching
- "he heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path"
- a critical situation that arises because of a shortage (as a shortage of time or money or resources)
- "an end-of-the year crunch"
- "a financial crunch"
- the act of crushing
- A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.
- A critical moment or event.
- A problem that leads to a crisis.
- A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.
- 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.
- The symbol #.
- A small piece created by crushing; a piece of material with a friable or crunchy texture.
- A shortage.
Verb
Verb Forms: crunched, crunching, crunches
- To chew or grind audibly; to make a loud, crisp sound.
- make a crushing noise
- "his shoes were crunching on the gravel"
- press or grind with a crushing noise
- chew noisily
- "The children crunched the celery sticks"
- reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or abrading
- To crush something, especially food, with a noisy crackling sound.
- To be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.
- To calculate or otherwise process (e.g. to crunch numbers: to perform mathematical calculations). Presumably from the sound made by mechanical calculators.
- To grind or press with violence and noise.
- To emit a grinding or crunching noise.
- To cause the gears to emit a crunching sound by releasing the clutch before the gears are properly synchronised.
- To compress (data) using a particular algorithm, so that it can be restored by decrunching.
- To make employees work overtime in order to meet a deadline in the development of a project.
Examples
- Beetles crunched beneath the men's heavy boots as they worked.
- He would CRUNCH his ice cubes nervously during the final tense turns of Words With Friends.
- That metadata makes it much easier for the search engine to crunch the data for queries.
- When I came home, Susan was watching TV with her feet up on the couch, crunching a piece of celery.
Origin / Etymology
From earlier craunch, cranch, of imitative origin.
Synonyms
bray, comminute, compaction, crackle, cranch, craunch, crush, grind, mash, munch, scranch, scraunch, crisp, crumble, hashtag, number sign, pound sign
Scrabble Score: 13
crunch: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordcrunch: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
crunch: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary