I. crash 1 /kræʃ/ BrE AmE verb
[ Date: 1300-1400 ; Origin: Probably from the sound ]
1 . CAR/PLANE ETC [intransitive and transitive] to have an accident in a car, plane etc by violently hitting something else ⇨ collide :
The jet crashed after take-off.
crash into/onto etc
The plane crashed into a mountain.
crash a car/bus/plane etc
He was drunk when he crashed the car.
2 . HIT SOMEBODY/SOMETHING HARD [I, T always + adv/prep] to hit something or someone extremely hard while moving, in a way that causes a lot of damage or makes a lot of noise
crash into/through etc
A brick crashed through the window.
We watched the waves crashing against the rocks.
The plates went crashing to the ground.
A large branch came crashing down.
3 . LOUD NOISE [intransitive] to make a sudden loud noise:
Thunder crashed and boomed outside.
4 . COMPUTER [intransitive and transitive] if a computer crashes, or if you crash the computer, it suddenly stops working:
The system crashed and I lost three hours’ worth of work.
5 . FINANCIAL [intransitive] if a ↑ stock market or ↑ share s crash, they suddenly lose a lot of value
6 . SPORT [intransitive] British English to lose very badly in a sports event:
Liverpool crashed to their worst defeat of the season.
7 . SLEEP [intransitive] spoken
a) to stay at someone’s house for the night:
Can I crash at your place on Saturday night?
b) ( also crash out ) to go to bed, or go to sleep very quickly, because you are very tired:
I crashed out on the sofa this afternoon.
8 . PARTY [transitive] informal to go to a party that you have not been invited to:
We crashed Joe’s party yesterday.
9 . crashing bore British English old-fashioned someone who is very boring
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THESAURUS
▪ crash verb [intransitive and transitive] to hit another vehicle, a tree, the ground etc, with a lot of force, causing a lot of damage:
The plane crashed a kilometre from the runway.
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He was scared I’d crash his car.
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The car crashed into a tree.
▪ hit verb [transitive] to move into something quickly and with force:
He wasn’t paying attention, and almost hit another car.
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The car hit a lamppost.
▪ collide verb [intransitive] if two cars, trains, planes etc collide, they hit each other, especially when they are moving in opposite directions:
The two planes collided in mid-air.
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An express train collided with a freight train in the morning rush hour.
▪ run into something phrasal verb [transitive] to hit a vehicle or object that is directly in front of you, especially because you are not paying attention:
He ran into the car in front while he was talking on his mobile phone.
▪ smash into something phrasal verb [transitive] to crash into something, causing a great amount of damage:
An army helicopter smashed into the side of the mountain.
▪ plough into British English , plow into American English phrasal verb [transitive] to crash into something with a lot of force, especially when your vehicle continues moving afterwards:
The bus went out of control and ploughed into a line of traffic.
▪ ram verb [transitive] to deliberately hit another boat or vehicle very hard, especially when it is not moving:
The ship had been rammed by a submarine.
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The gunmen tried to ram the police car.
II. crash 2 S3 BrE AmE noun [countable]
1 . an accident in which a vehicle violently hits something else ⇨ collision
plane/car/rail crash
Forty-one people were killed in a plane crash.
a fatal crash (=one in which someone is killed)
crash between/with
She was involved in a head-on crash with a motorbike (=in which the front of one vehicle directly hits the front of another) .
a motorway crash between a coach and a lorry
a crash victim
2 . a sudden loud noise made by something falling, breaking etc:
I heard a loud crash.
with a crash
The branch came down with a crash.
crash of
a crash of thunder
3 . an occasion when a computer or computer system suddenly stops working
4 . an occasion on which the ↑ stock s and ↑ share s in a ↑ stock market suddenly lose a lot of value:
the stock market crash of October 1987
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COLLOCATIONS
■ ADJECTIVES/NOUN + crash
▪ a car/train/plane etc crash
He was badly hurt in a car crash.
▪ a road/rail/air crash
There will be an investigation into the cause of the air crash.
▪ a head-on crash (=in which the front part of two vehicles hit each other)
He died in a head-on crash with a lorry.
▪ a fatal crash (=in which someone is killed)
There have been several fatal crashes on this road.
▪ a high-speed crash
the risk of injury from a high-speed crash
▪ a horrific/terrible/appalling crash
a horrific crash in which three teenage boys were killed
■ verbs
▪ have a crash ( also be involved in a crash ) (=in a car)
I’ve been nervous about driving since I had a crash last year.
▪ a crash happens/occurs
The three-vehicle crash happened on the corner of Ongar Road.
▪ a crash involves something
Two women were taken to hospital after a crash involving a bus and a car.
■ crash + NOUN
▪ a crash victim (=someone injured or killed in a crash)
Families of the crash victims want to know what happened.
▪ a crash site/scene (=place where a crash happens)
The authorities closed off a five-mile area around the crash site.
▪ a crash investigator (=someone who tries to find the cause of a crash)
Crash investigators spent several days examining the scene.