crunch
Pronunciation
  • (British, America) IPA: /kɹʌntʃ/
Verb

crunch (crunches, present participle crunching; past and past participle crunched)

  1. 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 (poem):
      And their white tusks crunch'd o'er the whiter skull,
  2. To be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.
    Beetles crunched beneath the men's heavy boots as they worked.
  3. (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.
  4. To grind or press with violence and noise.
  5. To emit a grinding or crunching noise.
    • 1849, Henry James, ''Confidence (novel)
      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 […]
  6. (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 (on newsgroup comp.archives)
      PackIt will not crunch executables, unless told to do so.
  7. (software development, slang, transitive) To make employees work overtime in order to meet a deadline in the development of a project.
Translations Translations
  • German: knirschen
  • Italian: spiaccicarsi
  • Russian: хрусте́ть
Translations Noun

crunch (plural crunches)

  1. A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.
  2. 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.
  3. A problem that leads to a crisis.
  4. (exercise) A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.
  5. (software development, slang) The overtime work required to catch up and finish a project, usually in the final weeks of development before release.
  6. A dessert consisting of a crunchy topping with fruit underneath.
    Synonyms: crisp, crumble
  7. (cooking, generally in the plural) A small piece created by crushing; a piece of material with a friable or crunchy texture.
Translations
  • Russian: хруст
Translations Translations
  • German: Bauchpresse, Bauchpressen



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