crush
Americanverb (used with object)
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crushes,
present (3rd person singular)
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crushed,
past participle, past
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crushing
present participle
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to press or squeeze with a force that destroys or deforms.
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to squeeze or pound into small fragments or particles, as ore, stone, etc.
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to force out by pressing or squeezing; extract.
to crush cottonseeds in order to produce oil.
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to rumple; wrinkle; crease.
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to smooth or flatten by pressure.
to crush leather.
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to hug or embrace forcibly or strongly.
He crushed her in his arms.
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to destroy, subdue, or suppress utterly.
to crush a revolt.
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to overwhelm with confusion, chagrin, or humiliation, as by argumentation or a slighting action or remark; squelch.
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to oppress grievously.
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Archaic. to finish drinking (wine, ale, etc.).
verb (used without object)
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crushes,
present (3rd person singular)
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crushed,
past participle, past
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crushing
present participle
-
to become crushed.
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to advance with crushing; press or crowd forcibly.
noun
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crushes
plural
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the act of crushing; state of being crushed.
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a great crowd.
a crush of shoppers.
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Informal.
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an intense but usually short-lived infatuation with someone.
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the object of such an infatuation.
Who's your latest crush?
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verb phrase
idioms
verb
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to press, mash, or squeeze so as to injure, break, crease, etc
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to break or grind (rock, ore, etc) into small particles
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to put down or subdue, esp by force
to crush a rebellion
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to extract (juice, water, etc) by pressing
to crush the juice from a lemon
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to oppress harshly
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to hug or clasp tightly
he crushed her to him
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to defeat or humiliate utterly, as in argument or by a cruel remark
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(intr) to crowd; throng
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(intr) to become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure
noun
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a dense crowd, esp at a social occasion
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the act of crushing; pressure
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a drink or pulp prepared by or as if by crushing fruit
orange crush
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informal
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an infatuation
she had a crush on him
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the person with whom one is infatuated
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noun
Synonym Usage
See break.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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crushabilitynoun
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crushernoun
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crushableadjective
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uncrushableadjective
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uncrushedadjective
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well-crushedadjective
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crushablyadverb
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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crushsimple
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crushessimple
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have crushedperfect
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has crushedperfect
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am crushingprogressive
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are crushingprogressive
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is crushingprogressive
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have been crushingperfect progressive
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has been crushingperfect progressive
Past
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crushedsimple
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had crushedperfect
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was crushingprogressive
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were crushingprogressive
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had been crushingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of crush
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English cruschen, crusshen, from Middle French croi(s)sir, cruisir “to gnash one's teeth, make a crashing or cracking sound, crackle, rustle, smash,” Medieval Latin cruscīre “to crackle,” from Germanic; compare Gothic kriustan “to crunch, grind,” Old Swedish krusa, krosa “to crush,” krȳsta “to gnash (one's teeth),” Middle Low German krossen “to crush”
Explanation
When you crush something, you break it into tiny pieces or crumple it. If you crush the cans in your recycling bin, you'll make more room for more. A train can crush a car that's stalled on the tracks, and a person can crush an insect between her fingers. A figurative meaning of crush is to subdue or stop, like when a military dictator's forces crush a rebel uprising. You can also use crush as a noun to mean "an overwhelming number," like a crush of bodies on a packed subway car, or to describe infatuation, like your crush on your attractive neighbor, who also can be called your crush.
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The winery facility has the capacity to crush 50,000 tons of grapes each year and bottle up to 3 million cases of wine.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 23, 2026
“It is objectively fun to have a little internet crush, and let that person be the senior senator from Georgia.”
From Salon ● Sep. 20, 2026
Johnson said: "That you had a crush on him."
From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026
His teenage crush, afflicted by illness, welcomes it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 28, 2026
“Will she add her big crush to the group? Or will she chicken out? Stay tuned.”
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
If the Jacobian determinant is always a constant number that is not zero, then the function never folds or crushes space around a particular point.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
“LLY crushes expectations,” wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Trung Huynh, describing the company’s second-quarter performance to investors.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 5, 2026
Max Muncy crushes a two-run home run and Roki Sasaki showcases his velocity in the Dodgers’ 2-1 victory over the New York Yankees.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 18, 2026
The Tehran events alone are expected to attract more than 10 million mourners from across Iran, with strict security measures imposed and official media warned of a risk of crowd crushes.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
But that didn’t feel right either, so really, Ivy had no idea what she thought about crushes at all.
From "Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
Firefighters in Kanagawa prefecture said they received a call from a man who reported his house had been crushed by a landslide.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
That is an astonishing reversal from Berkshire’s glory days during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s when it crushed the overall market by a wide margin.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 18, 2026
"Second, if I did, I would have gotten crushed because I didn't have a why."
From Barron's ● Sep. 15, 2026
The page also displays a picture of the Aztek van, a seatless ride whose interior was lined with crushed red velvet.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
The donut was a little banged up, its frosting puffs crushed.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
"Losing Geoff was a crushing blow to the whole family as we all thought he would be around to see his grandchildren grow up," she said.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
Slipping into survival mode, going through the motions without feeling the crushing weight of the reality of a situation, can be an adaptive response when you’re in the middle of a crisis.
From Slate ● Sep. 23, 2026
It seems like McKinley wants to deliver a crushing blow, but then feints at the last minute, opting for a more optimistic kind of fantasy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 18, 2026
The emergence of industrial crushing in the 1910s transformed the crop.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
A gigantic, invisible force was crushing the Black Tortoise Gate.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
