Definition
nounA violent collision or compression; a crash; destruction; ruin.
nounViolent pressure, as of a moving crowd.
Sentence Examples
I wish people would stop saying things in ways that crush young dreams.
Lucy's innocent crush turned into an obsession.
Crush the can before you throw it away.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English cruschen (“to crush, smash, squeeze, squash”), from Old French croissir (“to crush”), from Late Latin *crusciō (“to crush”), from Frankish *krustijan (“to crush, squeeze, squash”), from Proto-Germanic *kreustaną (“to crush, grind, strike, smash”).
Cognate with Middle Low German tôkrosten (“to crush, shatter”), Swedish krysta (“to squeeze”), Danish kryste (“to squash”), Icelandic kreista (“to squeeze, squash”), Faroese kroysta (“to squeeze”), Gothic 𐌺𐍂𐌹𐌿𐍃𐍄𐌰𐌽 (kriustan, “to gnash”). Akin also to Middle Dutch crosen (“to bruise, crush”), Middle Low German krossen, krö̂sen, tôkrö̂sen (“to break, shatter”), Old Swedish krusa (“to crush”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The more highly the injured part is endowed with sensory nerves the more marked is the shock; a crush of the hand, for example, is attended with a more intense degree of shock than a correspondingly severe crush of the foot"
— 1921, Alexis Thomson, Alexander Miles, Manual of Surgery:
"Then there was another set who called themselves the "Ragged Thirteen"; and the account says "they looked it." And, like most diggers, this "crush," to quote my authority, could handle the cards a bit."
— 1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 302:
""Look," said Crabbe, warm orange crush in his hand."
— 1958, Anthony Burgess, The Enemy in the Blanket (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 292:
"How did you know cause I never told / But you found out / I've got a crush on you"
— 1985, The Jets, “Crush on You”, in The Jets, performed by Aaron Lael Zigman and Jerry Knight:
"And I needed to get my schoolgirl crush under control. There was no way Brín felt anything anywhere near what I felt for him. He saw me as a friend."
— 2019, Emma Lea, A Royal Enticement: