Crunch

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /kɹʌntʃ/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒntʃ

Full definition of crunch

Verb

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.
• Lord Byron (1788-1824)Their white tusks crunched 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).
   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.
• KaneThe ship crunched through the ice.
• 1922, Ben Travers, A Cuckoo in the Nest Chapter 5, 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.
5. To emit a grinding or crunching noise.
• 1849, Henry James, ''ConfidenceThere were sounds in the air above his head – sounds of the crunching and rattling of the loose, smooth stones as his neighbors moved about...

Noun

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. (exercise) A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.

Derived terms

• credit crunch
• crunch time
• reverse crunch

Coordinate terms

• (abdominal exercise) sit-up, trunk curl