crush

«crush» in Mova's school dictionary: to press something so hard that it breaks, bends or loses… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (crush, crushes, crushed, crushing); noun (a crush, crushes)

meaning for a pupil

1) To crush means to press something so hard that it breaks, bends or loses its shape. tree →

2) To crush also means to defeat completely or to make someone feel very sad. tree →

3) A crush is a strong, often secret liking for someone. tree →

4) A crush is also a crowd of people pressed together tightly. tree →

sense in the lessons

In cooking and science, you crush garlic, biscuits or ice; crushing changes the shape but not the material (a physical change). In recycling, cans are crushed to save space. In safety, heavy things like falling furniture or TVs can crush small children, so furniture should be fixed to the wall, and doors can crush fingers. In feelings lessons, having a crush is normal. Phrases: have a crush on, crushed ice, a crushing defeat, crush hazard.

examples

• Crush the biscuits to make the cheesecake base. tree →
• The can was crushed flat. tree →
• Mind your fingers or the door will crush them. tree →
• Heavy furniture should be fixed to the wall so it can't fall and crush anyone. tree →
• She has a crush on a boy in her class. tree →
• Our team was crushed 5–0. tree →
• He felt crushed when he wasn't picked. tree →
• There was a crush of people at the gate. tree →
• They will crush us to death.’ tree →

note

Regular verb: crushed, crushing. Crush = press until broken; squash = press flat (often for soft things). In science, crushing is a physical change: crushed chalk is still chalk.

In the corpora

• Grown-ups also tease children about girlfriends and crushes, and older people sometimes find new partners late in life.
• A crush means really liking someone and thinking about them a lot; it is a private feeling and often passes.
• An anaconda kills by squeezing until the prey's blood stops flowing, not by crushing bones.
• The crushed cane stems left over are burned to power the sugar mills.
• A jay's feather is blue because of shape: crush it and the blue is gone, leaving grey-brown.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «crush» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.