1. Crush or break something so it produces a hard, crackling sound.
2. A period of severe pressure, shortage, or difficulty.
3. Carry out substantial calculations or numerical analysis.
Use it for
Words that belong together
- crunch gravel
- crunch an apple
On the page
Their boots crunched gravel in the otherwise silent yard.
Word forms
- Base
- crunch
- Past tense
- crunched
- Past participle
- crunched
- Present participle
- crunching
Full tense & aspect guide
- Present
- crunch
- Present continuous
- am/is/are crunching
- Present perfect
- have/has crunched
- Present perfect continuous
- have/has been crunching
- Past
- crunched
- Past continuous
- was/were crunching
- Past perfect
- had crunched
- Past perfect continuous
- had been crunching
- Future
- will crunch
- Future continuous
- will be crunching
- Future perfect
- will have crunched
- Future perfect continuous
- will have been crunching
Choose the auxiliary that agrees with your subject. These are constructions of one word, not separate entries.
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Usage notes
Primary category: sensory / description. Forms: crunch; crunches; crunched; crunched; crunching. Noun singular crunch; plural crunches. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: description. Commonness: moderately common. Third-person singular: crunches.
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