Verb
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.
- 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, page 517:The sound of our vessel crunching her way through the new ice is not easy to be described.
1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC: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.
Translations
to crush something with a noisy crackling sound
to be crushed with a noisy crackling sound
slang: to calculate or otherwise process
Noun
crunch (plural crunches)
- A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.
- A critical moment or event.
1976 August 21, A. Nolder Gay, “Another View”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 8, page 4:It always pains me (slightly) when a flaming young radical like Neil Miller turns out when the crunch comes to be such an ardent defender of the status quo.
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, 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.
2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times:But even I draw the line at “doing crunches” in designer clothes. Fashion sneakers are for swanking around the shops, not for running in. And so, like everyone else, I wear grotty old tracksuits earmarked for Oxfam, and tragic free festival T-shirts that give away my age.
- (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.
- Synonyms: crisp, crumble
- (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: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:But a supply crunch, which is already affecting the drive, could slow it down further.
Coordinate terms
- (abdominal exercise): sit-up, trunk curl
Translations
a noisy crackling sound
- Bulgarian: хрускане n (hruskane)
- Finnish: rouske (fi), ratina
- French: croquement (fr), craquement (fr)
- Greek: τραγανίζω (el) (traganízo), μασώντας δυνατά (masóntas dynatá), λαχταρώ (el) (lachtaró), μασάω (el) (masáo), μασουλίζω (el) (masoulízo), δαγκώνω (el) (dagkóno)
- Polish: chrzęst (pl), chrupnięcie n, chrupanie (pl) n, chrupot (pl) m
- Russian: хруст (ru) m (xrust)
- Swedish: knastrande (sv) n, knaprande (sv) n
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