crunch

Etymology

From earlier craunch, cranch, of imitative origin.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /kɹʌntʃ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌntʃ

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). Presumably from the sound made by mechanical calculators.

   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.

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.

Noun

crunch m (plural crunches)

1. crunch (exercise)