crash
pronunciation
How to pronounce crash in British English:
UK [kræʃ]
How to pronounce crash in American English:
US [ kræʃ]
-
- Noun:
- a loud resonant repeating noise
- a serious accident (usually involving one or more vehicles)
- a sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures)
- the act of colliding with something
- (computer science) an event that causes a computer system to become inoperative
-
- Verb:
- fall or come down violently
- move with, or as if with, a crashing noise
- undergo damage or destruction on impact
- move violently as through a barrier
- break violently or noisily; smash
- occupy, usually uninvited
- enter uninvited; informal
- cause to crash
- hurl or thrust violently
- undergo a sudden and severe downturn
- stop operating
- sleep in a convenient place
Word Origin
- crash
- crash: [14] Crash suddenly appeared from nowhere in Middle English (meaning ‘break in pieces noisily’), with apparently no relatives in other Germanic languages. Its form suggests that it originated in imitation of the sound of noisy breaking, but it has been further suggested that it may be a blend of craze and dash. The financial or business sense of the noun, ‘sudden collapse’, is first recorded in the early 19th century in the writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
- crash (v.)
- late 14c., crasschen "break in pieces;" probably imitative. Meaning "break into a party, etc." is 1922. Slang meaning "to sleep" dates from 1943; especially from 1965. Computing sense is from 1973. Related: Crashed; crashing.
- crash (n.)
- 1570s, from crash (v.); sense of "financial collapse" is from 1817, "collision" is from 1910; references to falling of airplanes are from World War I.
Example
- 1. I wrote a book about the crash of 1929 .
- 2. All he can do afterwards is crash .
- 3. A 2008 crash leaves the current number at 20 .
- 4. The investigation into the crash is proceeding ponderously .
- 5. Not everyone was wiped out in the 1987 crash .