different between cramp vs crush

English

Etymology

From Middle English crampe, from Old French crampe (“cramp”), from Frankish *krampa (“cramp”), from Proto-Germanic *kramp? (“cramp, clasp”). Distant relative of English crop.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?æmp/
• Rhymes: -æmp

Noun

cramp (countable and uncountable, plural cramps)

1. A painful contraction of a muscle which cannot be controlled.
   • August 1534, Margaret Roper (or Thomas More in her name), letter to Alice Alington

     the cramp also that divers nights gripeth him in his legs.

2. That which confines or contracts.

   Synonyms: restraint, shackle, hindrance

   • 1782, William Cowper, Truth

     crippling his pleasures with the cramp of fear

3. A clamp for carpentry or masonry.
4. A piece of wood having a curve corresponding to that of the upper part of the instep, on which the upper leather of a boot is stretched to give it the requisite shape.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

cramp (third-person singular simple present cramps, present participle cramping, simple past and past participle cramped)

1. (intransitive) (of a muscle) To contract painfully and uncontrollably.
2. (transitive) To affect with cramps or spasms.
   • 1936, Heinrich Hauser, Once Your Enemy (translated from the German by Norman Gullick)

     The collar of the tunic scratched my neck, the steel helmet made my head ache, and the puttees cramped my leg muscles.

3. (transitive, figuratively) To prohibit movement or expression of.
   • 1853, Austen Henry Layard, Discoveries in the Ruins of Nineveh and Babylon

     But the front of the animal , which was in full , was narrow and cramped , and unequal in dignity to the side

4. (transitive) To restrain to a specific physical position, as if with a cramp.

   You're going to need to cramp the wheels on this hill.

   • 1633, John Ford, Perkin Warbeck

     when the gout cramps my joints

5. To fasten or hold with, or as if with, a cramp iron.
6. (by extension) To bind together; to unite.
   • 1780, Edmund Burke, Principles in Politics

     The […] fabric of universal justice is well cramped and bolted together in all its parts.

7. To form on a cramp.

Derived terms

• cramp someone's style

Translations

Adjective

cramp (comparative more cramp, superlative most cramp)

1. (archaic) cramped; narrow

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “cramp”, in Online Etymology Dictionary
• cramp at OneLook Dictionary Search

Manx

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

cramp

1. intricate, complex

Derived terms

• neuchramp

Mutation

English

Etymology

From Middle English cruschen (“to crush, smash, squeeze, squash”), from Old French croissir (“to crush”), from Late Latin *cruscio (“to brush”), from Frankish *krostjan (“to crush, squeeze, squash”). Akin to Gothic ???????????????????????????????? (kriustan, “to gnash”), Old Swedish krusa (“to crush”), Middle Low German krossen (“to break”), Swedish krysta (“to squeeze”), Danish kryste (“to squash”), Icelandic kreista (“to squeeze, squash”), Faroese kroysta (“to squeeze”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k???/
• Rhymes: -??

Noun

crush (countable and uncountable, plural crushes)

1. A violent collision or compression; a crash; destruction; ruin.
2. Violent pressure, as of a moving crowd.
3. A crowd that produces uncomfortable pressure.

   a crush at a reception

4. A violent crowding.
5. A crowd control barrier.
6. A drink made by squeezing the juice out of fruit.
7. (informal) An infatuation with somebody one is not dating.

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

   1. (informal, by extension) The human object of such infatuation or affection.
   • 2004, Chris Wallace, Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage

     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.

8. A standing stock or cage with movable sides used to restrain livestock for safe handling.
9. (dated) A party or festive function.
   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray chapter 1

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

10. (Australia) The process of crushing cane to remove the raw sugar, or the season when this process takes place.
11. (television, 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

Hyponyms

• (infatuation): squish

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

crush (third-person singular simple present crushes, present participle crushing, simple past and past participle crushed)

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

   to crush grapes

   • 1769, Benjamin Blayney, King James Bible : Leviticus 22:24

     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

   Synonym: comminute

   to crush quartz

   • 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 1

     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

4. (figuratively, colloquial) 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.
7. To overcome completely; to subdue totally.

   The sultan's black guard crushed every resistance bloodily.
8. (intransitive) To be or become broken down or in, or pressed into a smaller compass, by external weight or force

   an eggshell crushes easily

9. (intransitive) To feel infatuation or unrequited love.

   She's crushing on him.
10. (film, television) To give a compressed or foreshortened appearance to.
    • 2003, Michel Chion, The Films of Jacques Tati (page 78)

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

    • 2010, Birgit Bräuchler, John Postill, Theorising Media and Practice (page 319)

      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.

11. (transitive, television) 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.

Derived terms

Synonyms

• (trans, to squeeze into a permanent new shape) squash
• (to pound or grind into fine particles) pulverize, pulverise
• (to overwhelm) overtake
• (to impress at) ace; slay at, kill

Translations

References

• crush in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• Rusch, Schur, churs

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English crush.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?k???/, /?k???/

Noun

crush m or m f (in variation) (plural crushes or crush)

1. (colloquial) crush (a love interest)