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.
Vocabulary lists containing 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:
“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
Before, the two forces had been allies, working together to crush rebellions in Darfur, but also pro-democracy movements that sprung up after the ouster of Sudanese dictator Omar Al-Bashir in 2019.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 8, 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
“On Thursday night, revenge will be ours. Timothy Bartlett shall transform into the Great Timdini! His magic act will crush Ainsley’s cello piece.”
From "Shine!" by J.J. and Chris Grabenstein
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
There was the excitement of new crushes and having fun in a new city with two friends, but there was also the crushing disappointment of feeling like I was never gonna make it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
Experimental and fun, it crushes the stars' voices through digital effects that give their declarations of undying love a yearning, other-worldly quality.
From BBC ● Mar. 20, 2026
All her life, her crushes had been from afar; she’d never had the courage to speak to any of the boys who caught her fancy.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Knife River produces construction materials including the crushed stone, sand and gravel used to make asphalt and concrete.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026
“It crushed us all,” said Tim Lynn, a now-retired helicopter pilot and reporter who flew for 16 years for KTLA-TV.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 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
They loved her very much and didn’t want to see her get crushed.
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
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
But crushing all those beans also produced a river of cheap oil.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
Of the thousands who like Mahmoud went missing during the Hamas-Israel war, the crushing majority remain unaccounted for, disappeared in the death-stalked bedlam of Gaza, no hint as to whether they’re dead or alive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 12, 2026
His crushing fatalism makes him an unlikely candidate to select patriotic verse for the festival’s poetry chapbook or to furnish interiors for its house-and-home exhibition.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The sounds of the ice grinding and crushing, creaking and cracking, filled the cold, damp air all around them.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
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.
