/ 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 .