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8 dictionary results for: crunch
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This
crunch 
[kruhnch] Pronunciation Key
[kruhnch] Pronunciation Key –verb (used with object)
–verb (used without object)
–noun
—Idiom
| 1. | to crush with the teeth; chew with a crushing noise. |
| 2. | to crush or grind noisily. |
| 3. | to tighten or squeeze financially: The administration's policy seems to crunch the economy in order to combat inflation. |
| 4. | to chew with a crushing sound. |
| 5. | to produce, or proceed with, a crushing noise. |
| 6. | an act or sound of crunching. |
| 7. | a shortage or reduction of something needed or wanted: the energy crunch. |
| 8. | distress or depressed conditions due to such a shortage or reduction: a budget crunch. |
| 9. | a critical or dangerous situation: When the crunch comes, just do your best. |
| 10. | crunch numbers, Computers.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
| crunch
(krŭnch) Pronunciation Key
v. crunched, crunch·ing, crunch·es v. tr.
v. intr.
n.
[Alteration of craunch, possibly of imitative origin.] crunch'a·ble adj. |
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
crunch
crunch
1814, from craunch (1631), probably of imitative origin. The noun is 1836, from the verb; the sense of "critical moment" was popularized by Winston Churchill, whose first recorded use of it was in 1939. Crunchy is from 1892; student slang sense of "annoyingly intense about health or environmental issues" is 1980s, short for crunchy granola; not entirely pejorative at first.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This
| crunch | |
noun | |
| 1. | the sound of something crunching; "he heard the crunch of footsteps on the gravel path" |
| 2. | a critical situation that arises because of a shortage (as a shortage of time or money or resources); "an end-of-the year crunch"; "a financial crunch" |
| 3. | the act of crushing [syn: crush] |
verb | |
| 1. | make a crushing noise; "his shoes were crunching on the gravel" |
| 2. | press or grind with a crushing noise |
| 3. | chew noisily; "The children crunched the celery sticks" |
| 4. | reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or abrading; "grind the spices in a mortar"; "mash the garlic" [syn: grind] |
WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University.
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing - Cite This Source - Share This
crunch
1.
2.
3. The hash character. Used at XEROX and CMU, among other places.
4. To squeeze program source to the minimum size that will still compile or execute. The term came from a BBC Microcomputer program that crunched BBC BASIC source in order to make it run more quickly (apart from storing keywords as byte codes, the language was wholly interpreted, so the number of characters mattered). Obfuscated C Contest entries are often crunched; see the first example under that entry.
[The Jargon File]
(2007-11-12)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © 1993-2007 Denis Howe
Jargon File - Cite This Source - Share This
1. vi. To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to perform. The pain may be due to the triviality's being embedded in a loop from 1 to 1,000,000,000. "FORTRAN programs do mostly number-crunching."
2. vt. To reduce the size of a file by a complicated scheme that produces bit configurations completely unrelated to the original data, such as by a Huffman code. (The file ends up looking something like a paper document would if somebody crunched the paper into a wad.) Since such compression usually takes more computations than simpler methods such as run-length encoding, the term is doubly appropriate. (This meaning is usually used in the construction `file crunch(ing)' to distinguish it from number-crunching.) See compress.
3. n. The character `#'. Used at XEROX and CMU, among other places. See ASCII.
4. vt. To squeeze program source into a minimum-size representation that will still compile or execute. The term came into being specifically for a famous program on the BBC micro that crunched BASIC source in order to make it run more quickly (it was a wholly interpretive BASIC, so the number of characters mattered). Obfuscated C Contest entries are often crunched; see the first example under that entry.
crunch
1. vi. To process, usually in a time-consuming or complicated way. Connotes an essentially trivial operation that is nonetheless painful to perform. The pain may be due to the triviality's being embedded in a loop from 1 to 1,000,000,000. "FORTRAN programs do mostly number-crunching."
2. vt. To reduce the size of a file by a complicated scheme that produces bit configurations completely unrelated to the original data, such as by a Huffman code. (The file ends up looking something like a paper document would if somebody crunched the paper into a wad.) Since such compression usually takes more computations than simpler methods such as run-length encoding, the term is doubly appropriate. (This meaning is usually used in the construction `file crunch(ing)' to distinguish it from number-crunching.) See compress.
3. n. The character `#'. Used at XEROX and CMU, among other places. See ASCII.
4. vt. To squeeze program source into a minimum-size representation that will still compile or execute. The term came into being specifically for a famous program on the BBC micro that crunched BASIC source in order to make it run more quickly (it was a wholly interpretive BASIC, so the number of characters mattered). Obfuscated C Contest entries are often crunched; see the first example under that entry.
Jargon File 4.2.0
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Crunch
Crunch\ (kr[u^]nch), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Crunched (kr[u^]ncht); p. pr. & vb. n. Crunching.] [Prob. of imitative origin; or cf. D. schransen to eat heartily, or E. scrunch.]1. To chew with force and noise; to craunch. And their white tusks crunched o'er the whiter skull. --Byron. 2. To grind or press with violence and noise. The ship crunched through the ice. --Kane. 3. To emit a grinding or craunching noise. The crunching and ratting of the loose stones. --H. James.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
Crunch
Crunch\, v. t. To crush with the teeth; to chew with a grinding noise; to craunch; as, to crunch a biscuit.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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