[f. prec. vb.]
1. An act, or the action, of craunching; = CRUNCH sb. 1.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), IX. l. Mumping your way through a … very sour apple, though you are soon reduced to your fore-teeth (grinders hors de combat at the first craunch).
1828. Blackw. Mag., XXIV. 872. The all-destroying cranch of Mr. Murray’s Review.
2. That which is or may be craunched; e.g., apples or the like. colloq.
Mod. The children like the garden, there is plenty of craunch there.
3. An accumulation of gravel, sand, grit, etc., at the mouth of a harbor. local.
1840. Evid. Hull Docks Com., 8. There is what we call a cranch at the entrance of the harbour; the mud and sand accumulated there.
4. (cranch.) Mining. A portion of a stratum or vein left in excavating to support the roof.
1747. Hooson, Miner’s Dict., F j b. Cranches are left though good Ore be in them … for a small Piece of wholes will hold up a greater weight than any Timber we can set to it.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Cranch, part of a vein left by old workers.
