[f. prec. vb.]
† 1. The noise of violent percussion; clashing; a crash. Obs.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. Wace, 2946. When boþe fflutes come at a frosche, Þe fyrste hortlyng gaf a gret crusche.
2. The act of crushing; violent compression or pressure that bruises, breaks down, injures or destroys; also fig.
1599. T. M[oufet], Silkwormes, 63. The hart-breake crush of melancholies wheele.
1601. Holland, Pliny, XXIX. vi. (1634), 369 (R.). To heale the eares that haue caught some hurt either by bruise, crush, or stripe.
1611. Cotgr., Escachure … also, a squash, crush, knocke, or squeeze (whereby a thing is flatted, or beaten close together).
1775. Johnson, Western Isl., Wks. X. 429. A heavy crush of disaster.
1820. Scoresby, Acc. Arctic Reg., I. 214. The ice pressed dreadfully around them … but the ship always escaped the heaviest crushes.
1882. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav. cxxi. 7. Our soul is kept from the dominion of sin … the crush of despondency.
b. In the following perhaps = crash, as now often quoted, and as apparently alluded to by Pope: see CRASH sb.1 2; but it may mean simply ‘destruction by crushing.’
1713. Addison, Cato, V. i. Unhurt amidst the war of elements, The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds.
1848. Lowell, Biglow Papers, Poems (1890), II. 6. Holding up the star-spangled banner amid the wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.
c. Coal-mining. (See quots.)
1851. Greenwell, Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh., 20. Crush.—This occurs when both the roof and thill of a seam of coal are hard, and when the pillars, insufficient for the support of the superincumbent strata, are crushed by their pressure.
1881. Raymond, Mining Gloss., Crush. 1. A squeeze, accompanied, perhaps, with more violent motion and effects. 2. A variety of fault in coal.
† 3. A bruise or injury caused by crushing. Obs.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 350. Contusions, bruses looking black and blew, strokes, crushes, rushes, rubs, and gals.
1617. Markham, Caval., VII. 67. It is called Nauell-gall, because the crush is vpon the signe iust opposite against the Horses Nauell.
1702. Lond. Gaz., No. 3837/4. Lost … a flea-bitten grey Mare, with a Crush on her right Foot in the Hoof behind.
4. The crowding together of a number of things, or esp. persons, so that they press forcibly upon each other; the mass so crowded together.
1806. Surr, Winter in Lond. (ed. 3), III. 136. No rank, no sex, could possibly receive exemption from the general crush.
1830. Cunningham, Brit. Paint., II. 54. The crush to see it was very great.
1840. Dickens, Barn. Rudge, xxxvii. A crush of carts and chairs and coaches.
b. A crowded social gathering. colloq.
1832. Macaulay, Lett., 18 July. I fell in with her at Lady Grey’s great crush.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, R. Elsmere (1890), 439. [The party] isn’t a crush. I have only asked about thirty or forty people.
5. Cartilage, gristle. dial.
[= OHG. cros in nasecros, ôrcros, MLG. krose, also MHG. kroszbein, kruszbein, krusbein, f. krosen to crackle, crunch: cf. CRUSHEL.)
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Crish, Crush, cartilage, or soft bones of young animals, easily crushed by the teeth. Ibid., Crush, crustle, gristle.
6. Comb. (perh. formed on verb-stem), as crush-bone, -nosed. Also CRUSH HAT, -ROOM.
1696. Lond. Gaz., No. 3193/4. Lost … a bay Gelding … with a Crush bone on the side of the Nose.
1876. Browning, Shop, 9. Some crush-nosed human-hearted dog.
