crunch

Word family

Related topics: Colours & sounds

crunch1 /krʌntʃ/ noun

1 C[singular] a noise like the sound of something being crushed 嘎吱嘎吱的声音

The only sound was the crunch of tyres on gravel.

唯一的声音是轮胎压在砂砾上的嘎吱声。

2 [countableC, singular] American EnglishAmEMONEY a difficult situation caused by a lack of something, especially money or time 〔尤指缺少钱或时间造成的〕困难局面，困境

Three new teachers were hired to help ease the crunch.

雇了三名新的老师以助解困。

cash/budget/financial etc crunch

Cost cutting had enabled the organization to survive a previous cash crunch.

削减成本使得该机构渡过了早前资金短缺的难关。

3 the crunch (also crunch time American English)DECIDE an important time, especially one when a difficult decision has to be made 关键时刻，需要作出困难决定时

The crunch came when my bank asked for my credit card back.

银行要收回我的信用卡，事情就变得非常紧急。

When it came to the crunch, she couldn’t agree to marry him.

到了关键时刻，她又不肯答应嫁给他。

4. [countableC] an exercise in which you lie on your back and lift your head and shoulders off the ground to make your stomach muscles strong 仰卧起坐〔一种锻炼腹肌的运动方式〕 SYN sit-up

Examples from the Corpus

crunch• First though it's rugby and crunch time in the Courage League tomorrow.• At crunch time the team really pulled together.• My footsteps made a satisfactory crunch on a gravel path and I was aware at once that the satyr's footsteps had halted.• Millions of otherwise serviceable computers today are suffering from space crunch.• While that supply crunch has eased, prices are still benefiting to some extent, traders say.• Actually, the crunch did come, and the liberals never lifted a finger to save us.• I heard the crunch of footsteps on gravel road outside.• If it comes to the crunch, going in would seem to me the lesser evil.• There was the crunch of his feet rapidly moving away over the snow and she felt her tense muscles relax.

cash/budget/financial etc crunch• In the short term, next week's budget crunch is more like a toy train crash rather than the real thing.• But until the budget crunches of the early nineties, no administrator ever threatened to fire them.• The cash crunch also prevented the family from fully stocking its remaining stores.• Despite this cash crunch, Simpson may yet find a way to at least postpone payment of his debts to the plaintiffs.

Related topics: Colours & sounds

crunch2 verb

1 [intransitiveI]C to make a sound like something being crushed 嘎吱作响

Their boots crunched loudly on the frozen snow.

他们的靴子踩在冻结的雪上发出嘎吱嘎吱的响声。

2 [intransitiveI always + adverbadv/prepositionprep, transitiveT]EAT to eat hard food in a way that makes a noise 嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼

crunch on

The dog was crunching on a bone.

这条狗在嘎吱嘎吱地啃骨头。

3 crunch (the) numbers to do a lot of calculations in order to find an answer 〔为找出答案而进行的〕大量运算

The computer will crunch all the numbers to determine the final score.

电脑会对所有数字进行计算，算出最后的分数。

Examples from the Corpus

crunch (the) numbers• Linked together, they can crunch numbers as fast as any mainframe, but at a fraction of the cost.• She lived for the day when she could crunch numbers in the dry air of West Texas.• One crunched numbers; they were very important to him.

Examples from the Corpus

crunch• He drank his orange juice and crunched a half burnt piece of toast.• Jill was reading the paper, crunching a raw carrot as she read.• We walked along in silence, the snow crunching beneath our feet.• No, the sound of crunching from the hallway confirmed that Holmes was having a remote control snack.• Kids were crunching graham crackers and drinking juice.• He staggered round the rear of the couch, feet crunching in plaster, and sat down.• The Don Eusebio crunched into the Zamboanga wharf at noon, four hours behind schedule.• She popped a fragment of biscuit into her mouth and crunched it primly with her front teeth.• Miguel, crunching on a mouthful of chips, wiped the cheese from his beard.• The room was lit by a red light from the burning houses behind it as Anne crunched over broken crockery and plaster.• They crunch those numbers with their calculators and spreadsheets.• Broken window glass crunched under foot.

From Longman Business Dictionary

crunchcrunch /krʌntʃ/ verb

crunch (the) numbersSTATISTICSACCOUNTING to do very complicated calculations on large amounts of DATA (=information stored on a computer) in order to find out about something

Media buyers have to know what’s going on, not just how to crunch numbers.

Origin crunch2

(1800-1900) cranch “to crunch” ((17-19 centuries)), probably from the sound; influenced by munch

crunch1 nouncrunch2 verb

Chinese

Corpus