crush

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)A violent collision or compression; a crash; destruction; ruin.

   “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”

2. (countable, uncountable)Violent pressure, as of a moving crowd.
3. (countable, uncountable)A violent crowding.
4. (countable, uncountable)A crowd that produces uncomfortable pressure.

   “a crush at a reception”

5. (countable, slang, uncountable)A group or gang.

   “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.”

6. (countable, uncountable)A crowd control barrier.
7. (countable, uncountable)A drink made by squeezing the juice out of fruit.

   “"Look," said Crabbe, warm orange crush in his hand.”

8. (countable, informal, uncountable)An infatuation with somebody one is not dating.

   “I've had a huge crush on her since we met many years ago.”

   “How did you know cause I never told / But you found out / I've got a crush on you”

   “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.”

9. (broadly, countable, informal, uncountable)An infatuation with somebody one is not dating.

   “He took his crush out for dinner.”

   “It had taken nine years from the evening that Truman first showed up with a pie plate at her mother's door, but his dogged perseverance eventually won him the hand of his boyhood Sunday school crush.”

10. (countable, uncountable)A standing stock or cage with movable sides used to restrain livestock for safe handling.
11. (countable, dated, uncountable)A party or festive function.

    “Two months ago I went to a crush at Lady Brandon's.”

12. (Australia, countable, uncountable)The process of crushing cane to remove the raw sugar, or the season when this process takes place.
13. (uncountable)The situation where certain colors are so similar as to be hard to distinguish, either as a deliberate effect or as a limitation of a display.

    “black crush; white crush”

14. (uncountable)A paraphilia involving arousal from seeing things destroyed by crushing.

    “Just as they say that marijuana leads to harder drugs, Gallegly is claiming that crush is a "gateway fetish"—a term I've never heard before. He claims that if someone starts with bugs they'll end up escalating to human babies in no time.”

verb

1. To press between two hard objects; to squeeze so as to alter the natural shape or integrity, or to force together into a mass.

   “to crush grapes”

   “Ye shall not offer unto the Lord that which is bruised, or crushed, or broken, or cut”

2. To reduce to fine particles by pounding or grinding.

   “to crush quartz”

   “With a wild scream he was upon her, tearing a great piece from her side with his mighty teeth, and striking her viciously upon her head and shoulders with a broken tree limb until her skull was crushed to a jelly.”

3. (figuratively)To overwhelm by pressure or weight.

   “After the corruption scandal, the opposition crushed the ruling party in the elections”

   “We believe the invasion has reached its peak. The task remaining is to crush it. Our men are confident, the United Nations command is confident, that it will be crushed.”

   “A stunning performance from the Republic of Ireland all but sealed progress to Euro 2012 as they crushed nine-man Estonia 4-0 in the first leg of the qualifying play-off tie in A Le Coq Arena in Tallinn.”

4. (colloquial, figuratively)To do impressively well at (sports events; performances; interviews; etc.).

   “They had a gig recently at Madison Square—totally crushed it!”

5. To oppress or grievously burden.
6. To overcome completely; to subdue totally.

   “The sultan's black guard crushed every resistance bloodily.”

   “the prospect of the Duke's speedily overtaking and crushing the rebels”

7. (intransitive)To be or become broken down or in, or pressed into a smaller volume or area, by external weight or force.

   “an eggshell crushes easily”

8. (intransitive, transitive)To feel infatuation or unrequited love.

   “She's crushing on him.”

   “Then walked in / The girl I'm crushin' / And the kid spilled juice / On my Mom's new cushion”

   “... I could just let loose and be myself no holding back you know we just where to young kids in love, lust, crushing whatever you wanted to call it but we where living it up having fun when we where together the rest of the world didn't exist ...”

   “And the one subject that I get an A plus in every time, is the ancient art of crushing. I crush, therefore I am. I've decided to share the benefit of my wisdom and after months of hopelessly lusting after Dylan, I've REALISED that there are twelve degrees of crushing from the slightly embarrassing things most girls will do to catch the eye of the heir to their heart, to the verging on ridiculous stunts you pull when you're in the grip of a passion that renders you powerless.”

   “"I respect your wiring," he explained, "but I'm crushing on you. And when I crush, I crush hard." He thought it would be better if we stopped seeing each other for a while.”

9. To give a compressed or foreshortened appearance to.

   “He frames his subject in distant close-ups (we feel the distance, due mostly to the crushed perspective brought about by the telephoto lens).”

   “They realise that trajectories, space expansion and crushing are different with different lenses, whether wide angle or telephoto, and that actors' eyelines will be altered.”

10. (transitive)To make certain colors so similar as to be hard to distinguish, either as a deliberate effect or as a limitation of a display.

    “My old TV set crushes the blacks when the brightness is lowered.”