# crunch
## English
### Etymology

From earlier craunch, cranch, of imitative origin.

### Pronunciation

* (UK, US) IPA: /kɹʌnt͡ʃ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ʌntʃ

### Verb

crunch (third-person singular simple present crunches, present participle crunching, simple past and past participle crunched)
* 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.
** 1816, Lord Byron, The Siege of Corinth:And their white tusks crunch'd o'er the whiter skull,
* To be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.
    Beetles crunched beneath the men's heavy boots as they worked.
* (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.
* To grind or press with violence and noise.
** 1854, E.K. Kane, “The United States Grinnell Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin: a personal Narrative”, in The Living Age‎, page 517:The sound of our vessel crunching her way through the new ice is not easy to be described.
** 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC: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.
* 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 […]
* (automotive, transitive) To cause the gears to emit a crunching sound by releasing the clutch before the gears are properly synchronised.
* (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”, in comp.archives (Usenet):PackIt will not crunch executables, unless told to do so.
* (software engineering, slang, transitive) To make employees work overtime in order to meet a deadline in the development of a project.

#### Derived terms

* bone-crunching
* crunchable
* cruncher
* crunchingly
* number-crunching
* uncrunch

#### Translations
### Noun

crunch (plural crunches)
* A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.
* A critical moment or event.
** 1976 August 21, A. Nolder Gay, “Another View”, in Gay Community News, volume 4, number 8, page 4:It always pains me (slightly) when a flaming young radical like Neil Miller turns out when the crunch comes to be such an ardent defender of the status quo.
** 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.
* A problem that leads to a crisis.
** 1994, Martin H. Wolfson, Financial Crises: Understanding the Postwar U.S. Experience‎, page 22:The crunch is characterized by extremely depressed liquidity and deteriorated balance sheet positions for households, corporations, and financial institutions […]
* (exercise) A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.
** 2017 November 16, Jo Ellison, “Help: the gym has turned us into slobs”, in Financial Times‎:But even I draw the line at “doing crunches” in designer clothes. Fashion sneakers are for swanking around the shops, not for running in. And so, like everyone else, I wear grotty old tracksuits earmarked for Oxfam, and tragic free festival T-shirts that give away my age.
* (software engineering, slang) The overtime work required to catch up and finish a project, usually in the final weeks of development before release.
* A dessert consisting of a crunchy topping with fruit underneath.
    Synonyms: crisp, crumble
* (chiefly US) The symbol #.
* (cooking, generally in the plural) A small piece created by crushing; a piece of material with a friable or crunchy texture.
** 2014 December 18, “Fluffernutter and Nutella Yule Log”, in The Lovely Crazy‎:Smear the peanut butter, fluff, and a bit of the nutella all over, even to the very edge of the wrap. Sprinkle the crunches on top and then start rolling from one of the non-trimmed edges
* (slang) A shortage.
** 2021 April 22, “Covid: India sets global record for new cases amid oxygen shortage”, in BBC News‎:But a supply crunch, which is already affecting the drive, could slow it down further.

#### Synonyms

(symbol):
* hashtag
* number sign
* pound sign

#### Coordinate terms

* (abdominal exercise): sit-up, trunk curl

#### Derived terms

* big crunch
* buttercrunch
* credit crunch
* crunch game
* crunch numbers
* crunch time
* crunch-time
* crunchy
* Dutch crunch
* pizza crunch
* reverse crunch
* screen crunch
* scrunch
* stomach crunch
* time crunch

#### Translations
## Italian
### Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English crunch.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈkrunt͡ʃ/, (careful style) /ˈkrant͡ʃ/
* Rhymes: -untʃ, (careful style) -antʃ

### Noun

crunch m (invariable)
* (usually in the plural, exercise) crunch

### References

* ↑ crunch in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

## Spanish
### Noun

crunch m (plural crunches)
* crunch (exercise)