crush

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to break into small pieces

   The car crushed the toy.

2. 2
   verb

   to become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure

   The plastic bottle crushed against the wall.

3. 3
   verb

   to destroy by smashing or bruising

   The fruit was crushed when a delivery truck backed over the crate it was in.

4. 4
   verb

   to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition

   crush an aluminum can

5. 5
   verb

   to humiliate or depress completely

   I was crushed by their refusal of my invitation.

6. 6
   noun

   A violent collision or compression; a crash; destruction; ruin.

   The more highly the injured part is endowed with sensory nerves the more marked is the shock; a crush of the hand, for example, is attended with a more intense degree of shock than a correspondingly severe crush of the foot

7. 7
   noun

   A crowd that produces uncomfortable pressure.

   a crush at a reception

8. 8
   noun

   A group or gang.

   Then there was another set who called themselves the "Ragged Thirteen"; and the account says "they looked it." And, like most diggers, this "crush," to quote my authority, could handle the cards a bit.

Etymology

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, tôk…