crunch

views updated May 21 2018

crunch / krənch/ • v. [tr.] 1. crush (a hard or brittle foodstuff) with the teeth, making a loud but muffled grinding sound. ∎  [intr.] make such a sound, esp. when walking or driving over gravel or an icy surface. ∎  strike or crush noisily: two drivers who had just crunched fenders. 2. process (large amounts of information) or perform (operations of great complexity), esp. by computer: computers crunch data from real-world observations.• n. 1. [usu. in sing.] a loud muffled grinding sound made when crushing, moving over, or hitting something.2. (the crunch) inf. a crucial point or situation, typically one at which a decision with important consequences must be made: when it comes to the crunch, you chicken out. ∎  a severe shortage of money or credit: easing America's credit crunch.3. a physical exercise designed to strengthen the abdominal muscles; a sit-up.

crunch

views updated May 29 2018

crunch crush with the teeth. XIX. var. of craunch (XVII), assim. to munch.

Crunch

views updated May 14 2018

Crunch

of wrestlers -Lipton, 1970.

More From encyclopedia.com