Dictionary

crush

Etymology

From Middle English cruschen, from Old French croissir, from Late Latin *crusciō, from Frankish *krustijan, from Proto-Germanic *kreustaną.

Akin to Middle Dutch crosen, Middle Low German krossen, krȫsen, gmq-osw krusa, Swedish krysta, Danish kryste, Icelandic kreista, Faroese kroysta, Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽.

Pronunciation

IPA: /kɹʌʃ/

Noun

crush

A violent collision or compression; a crash; destruction; ruin.
Violent pressure, as of a moving crowd.
A violent crowding.
A crowd that produces uncomfortable pressure.
a crush at a reception
(slang) A group or gang.
A crowd control barrier.
A drink made by squeezing the juice out of fruit.
(informal) An infatuation with somebody one is not dating.
I've had a huge crush on her since we met many years ago.
- 2019, Emma Lea, A Royal Enticement:
  And I needed to get my schoolgirl crush under control. There was no way Brín felt anything anywhere near what I felt for him. He saw me as a friend.
1. (informal, by extension) The human object of such infatuation or affection.
  - 2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage:
    It had taken nine years from the evening that Truman first showed up with a pie plate at her mother's door, but his dogged perseverance eventually won him the hand of his boyhood Sunday school crush.
A standing stock or cage with movable sides used to restrain livestock for safe handling.
(dated) A party or festive function.
- 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter 1, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC ↗:
  Two months ago I went to a crush at Lady Brandon's.
(Australia) The process of crushing cane to remove the raw sugar, or the season when this process takes place.
(television, uncountable) The situation where certain colors are so similar as to be hard to distinguish, either as a deliberate effect or as a limitation of a display.
black crush; white crush
(uncountable, sexuality) A paraphilia involving arousal from seeing things destroyed by crushing.
- 2000, Katharine Gates, Deviant Desires: Incredibly Strange Sex, page 137:
  Just as they say that marijuana leads to harder drugs, Gallegly is claiming that crush is a "gateway fetish"—a term I've never heard before. He claims that if someone starts with bugs they'll end up escalating to human babies in no time.

Translations

Italian: ressa, calca
Portuguese: choque, colisão
Russian: разда́вливание
Spanish: aplastamiento

Translations

Russian: да́вка
Spanish: aplastamiento

Translations

Spanish: aplastamiento

Translations

French: barricade

Translations

French: béguin, amourette, faible, coup de cœur, (Quebec) kick
German: Schwarm
Italian: cotta
Portuguese: paixonite, fraquinho
Russian: увлече́ние
Spanish: enamoramiento, flechazo, camote (Ecuador)

Verb

crush (crushes, present participle crushing; simple past and past participle crushed)

To press between two hard objects; to squeeze so as to alter the natural shape or integrity, or to force together into a mass.
to crush grapes
- 1769, Benjamin Blayney, King James Bible, Leviticus 22:24:
  Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut
To reduce to fine particles by pounding or grinding.
Synonyms: comminute
to crush quartz
- 1912 October, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes”, in The All-Story, New York, N.Y.: Frank A. Munsey Co., →OCLC ↗; republished as chapter 1, in Tarzan of the Apes, New York, N.Y.: A. L. Burt Company, 1914 June, →OCLC ↗:
  With a wild scream he was upon her, tearing a great piece from her side with his mighty teeth, and striking her viciously upon her head and shoulders with a broken tree limb until her skull was crushed to a jelly.
(figurative) To overwhelm by pressure or weight.
After the corruption scandal, the opposition crushed the ruling party in the elections
(figurative, colloquial) To do impressively well at (sports events; performances; interviews; etc.).
They had a gig recently at Madison Square—totally crushed it!
To oppress or grievously burden.
To overcome completely; to subdue totally.
The sultan's black guard crushed every resistance bloodily.
(intransitive) To be or become broken down or in, or pressed into a smaller volume or area, by external weight or force.
an eggshell crushes easily
(intransitive, transitive) To feel infatuation or unrequited love.
She's crushing on him.
(film, television) To give a compressed or foreshortened appearance to.
- 2003, Michel Chion, The Films of Jacques Tati, page 78:
  He frames his subject in distant close-ups (we feel the distance, due mostly to the crushed perspective brought about by the telephoto lens).
- 2010, Birgit Bräuchler, John Postill, Theorising Media and Practice, page 319:
  They realise that trajectories, space expansion and crushing are different with different lenses, whether wide angle or telephoto, and that actors' eyelines will be altered.
(transitive, television) To make certain colors so similar as to be hard to distinguish, either as a deliberate effect or as a limitation of a display.
My old TV set crushes the blacks when the brightness is lowered.