English

Verb

crunch ‎(third-person singular simple present crunches, present participle crunching, simple 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.‎

   • 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.
   • Kane

     The ship crunched through the ice.

   • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest:

     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, 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 […]

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.

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. (exercise (sport)) 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

Translations

Spanish

Noun

crunch m ‎(plural crunches)

1. crunch (exercise)