Link Centre Dictionary

crush

UK/kɹʌʃ/ US/ˈkrʌʃ/ common informal slang
verb (8) noun (4)

verb

1.

come down on or keep down by unjust use of one''s authority

  • “The government oppresses political activists”
Synonyms
2.

to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition

  • “crush an aluminum can”
  • “squeeze a lemon”
Synonyms
3.

come out better in a competition, race, or conflict

  • “Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship”
  • “We beat the competition”
  • “Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game”
Synonyms
4.

break into small pieces

  • “The car crushed the toy”
5.

humiliate or depress completely

  • “She was crushed by his refusal of her invitation”
  • “The death of her son smashed her”
Synonyms
6.

crush or bruise

  • “jam a toe”
Synonyms
7.

make ineffective

  • “Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination”
Synonyms
8.

become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure

  • “The plastic bottle crushed against the wall”

noun

1.

leather that has had its grain pattern accentuated

Synonyms
2.

a dense crowd of people

Synonyms
3.
4.

the act of crushing

Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English cruschen (“to crush, smash, squeeze, squash”), from Old French croissir (“to crush”), from Late Latin *crusciō (“to crush”), from Frankish *krustijan (“to crush, squeeze, squash”), from Proto-Germanic *kreustaną (“to crush, grind, strike, smash”). Cognate with Middle Low German tôkrosten (“to crush, shatter”), Swedish krysta (“to squeeze”), Danish kryste (“to squash”), Icelandic kreista (“to squeeze, squash”), Faroese kroysta (“to squeeze”), Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (kriustan, “to gnash”). Akin also to Middle Dutch crosen (“to bruise, crush”), Middle Low German krossen, krö̂sen, tôkrö̂sen (“to break, shatter”), Old Swedish krusa (“to crush”).

Phrases

  • bone-crushing dog
  • cattle crush
  • crush a cup
  • crush barrier
  • crush cage
  • crush depth
  • crush hat
  • crush it
  • crush load
  • crush on
  • crush out
  • crush party

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Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.