Meaning of crunch In English

• 0 to crush hard food loudly between the teeth, or to make a sound as if something is being crushed or broken:

  • She was crunching noisily on an apple.

  • The gravel crunched underfoot as we walked up to the house.

• 1 the sound of hard food being crushed between the teeth, or like something being crushed or broken:

  • The woods were silent apart from the crunch of our feet in the snow.

• 2 a difficult situation that forces you to make a decision or do something:

  • The crunch came when she was forced to choose between her marriage and her career.

• 3 an exercise in which you lie on your back on the floor with your knees bent and your feet flat on the floor, and then raise your head and shoulders:

  • Doing crunches every day strengthens your abdominal muscles.

• 4 to crush hard food loudly between the teeth, or to make a sound as if something is being crushed or broken:

  • [ I ] She was crunching noisily on an apple.

  • [ I ] The gravel crunched underfoot as we walked up the path.

• 5 to calculate numbers or process information:

  • The project seems worthwhile, but you have to crunch the numbers to see if it’s affordable.

• 6 a difficult situation which forces you to make a decision or act:

  • 'The state faces a financial crunch.

• 7 a noise that sounds as if something is being crushed or broken:

  • We heard a loud crunch as the car hit the wall.

• 8 a situation in which there is not enough of something:

  • Humanity is heading for an energy crunch within a very few years.

  • a crunch happens/occurs The crunch occurred because irresponsible lending led to a huge debt bubble.

  • If we want to avoid a recurrence of this present crunch, we need to understand why it happened.

  • Numerous agencies are starting to feel the crunch from operating for four months at or below last year's levels.

• 9 when a situation becomes extremely serious and a decision must be made:

  • If it comes to the crunch, we'll have no alternative but to sell up.

• 10 to deal with data by performing a large number of calculations:

  • We hired a major accounting firm to crunch the numbers.

  • We believe we have made a profit, but we haven't crunched the numbers yet.