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crash and burn

 - 4 dictionary results
crash 1   (krāsh)   
v.   crashed, crash·ing, crash·es

v.   intr.
    1. To break violently or noisily; smash.

    2. To undergo sudden damage or destruction on impact: Their car crashed into a guardrail. The airplane crashed over the ocean.

    3. To find temporary lodging or shelter, as for the night.

    4. To go to sleep.

  1. To make a sudden loud noise: breakers crashing against the rocks.

  2. To move noisily or so as to cause damage: went crashing through the woods.

  3. To undergo a sudden severe downturn, as a market or economy.

  4. Computer Science To stop functioning due to a crash.

  5. Slang To undergo a period of unpleasant feeling or depression as an aftereffect of drug-taking.

  6. Slang

    1. To find temporary lodging or shelter, as for the night.

    2. To go to sleep.

v.   tr.
  1. To cause to crash.

  2. To dash to pieces; smash.

  3. Informal To join or enter (a party, for example) without invitation.

n.  
  1. A sudden loud noise, as of an object breaking.

    1. A smashing to pieces.

    2. A collision, as between two automobiles. See Synonyms at collision.

    3. A sudden failure of a hard drive caused by damaging contact between the head and the storage surface, often resulting in the loss of data on the drive.

    4. A sudden failure of a program or operating system, usually without serious consequences.

  2. A sudden severe downturn: a market crash; a population crash.

  3. Computer Science

    1. A sudden failure of a hard drive caused by damaging contact between the head and the storage surface, often resulting in the loss of data on the drive.

    2. A sudden failure of a program or operating system, usually without serious consequences.

  4. Slang Mental depression after drug-taking.

adj.   Informal
Of or characterized by an intensive effort to produce or accomplish: a crash course on income-tax preparation; a crash diet.

[Middle English crasschen; probably akin to crasen, to shatter; see craze.]
crash'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
crash and burn

  1. in.
    [for a young man] to fail brilliantly with a romance. (Collegiate. See also go down in flames.) : It stands to reason that if Carole hadn't shot me down, I wouldn't have crashed and burned.
  2. in.
    to fail spectacularly. : I have to be prepared. I don't want to crash and burn if I don't have to.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Computing Dictionary

crash and burn jargon
A spectacular crash, in the mode of the conclusion of the car-chase scene in the movie "Bullitt" and many subsequent imitators (compare die horribly). A Sun-3 display screen losing the flyback transformer and lightning strikes on VAX-11/780 backplanes are notable crash and burn generators.
The construction "crash-and-burn machine" is reported for a computer used exclusively for alpha or beta testing, or reproducing bugs (i.e. not for development). The implication is that it wouldn't be such a disaster if that machine crashed, since only the testers would be inconvenienced.
[The Jargon File]
(1996-02-22)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
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Idioms & Phrases

crash and burn

  1. Fail utterly, as in Dale crashed and burned three times before passing the bar exam. This idiom alludes to a car or airplane that has crashed and caught fire. [Slang; 1970s]

  2. In skateboarding and other sports, be taken out of competition by a collision, accident, or fall, as in Although she was favored to win the downhill race, she crashed and burned on her first run. [Slang; 1980s]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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