bone-crushing
Americanadjective
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powerful or constricting enough to crush one's bones.
a bone-crushing handshake.
-
extremely painful, troublesome, costly, etc..
a bone-crushing mortgage.
Etymology
Origin of bone-crushing
First recorded in 1670–80
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.
Maybe so, and the Tom Brady depicted here surely possesses some of that, demonstrated by an anecdote about him setting a bone-crushing pick in an intramural basketball game.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
Its long, shallow skull indicates it lacked the bone-crushing bite strength of T. rex.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2025
In the real world, no human could survive the unimaginable heat and bone-crushing pressure, even if there were a vehicle capable of tunneling to the core, Vidale said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2024
Based on fossilized poop and gnawed bones, researchers know adults used their bone-crushing teeth to eat large plant-eating dinos the size of an African elephant, such as Triceratops and duck-billed dinosaurs.
From Science Magazine ● Dec. 7, 2023
He clasped Griff by the forearm, pulled him into a bone-crushing hug.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
