CRUNCH


Meaning of CRUNCH in English

/ krʌntʃ; NAmE / noun , verb , adjective

■ noun

1.

[ C , usually sing. ] a noise like the sound of sth firm being crushed :

the crunch of feet on snow

The car drew up with a crunch of gravel.

2.

the crunch [ sing. ] ( informal ) an important and often unpleasant situation or piece of information :

The crunch came when she returned from America.

He always says he'll help but when it comes to the crunch (= when it is time for action) he does nothing.

The crunch is that we can't afford to go abroad this year.

3.

[ C , usually sing. ] ( especially NAmE ) a situation in which there is suddenly not enough of sth, especially money :

a budget / energy / housing crunch

4.

[ C ] = sit-up

■ verb

1.

crunch (on sth) to crush sth noisily between your teeth when you are eating :

[ vn ]

She crunched her apple noisily.

[also v ]

2.

to make or cause sth to make a noise like sth hard being crushed

SYN scrunch :

[ v ]

The snow crunched under our feet.

[also vn ]

3.

[ v + adv. / prep. ] to move over a surface, making a loud crushing noise :

I crunched across the gravel to the front door.

4.

[ vn ] ( computing ) to deal with large amounts of data very quickly

—see also number crunching

PHRASAL VERBS

- crunch sth up

■ adjective

[ only before noun ] ( informal ) a crunch meeting, sports game, etc. is very important and may be the last chance to succeed :

Sunday's crunch game with Leeds

••

WORD ORIGIN

early 19th cent. (as a verb): variant of 17th-cent. cranch (probably imitative), by association with crush and munch .

Oxford Advanced Learner's English Dictionary.      Оксфордский английский словарь для изучающик язык на продвинутом уровне.