Meaning & use
crush
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Meanings
nouncountableinformal
A strong, usually short-lived feeling of romantic attraction to someone, often unspoken.
Grammar: Used with on: a crush on someone.
Patterns
- have a crush on someone
- a crush on someone
She had a huge crush on her classmate in ninth grade.
His crush on the teacher made him blush every morning.
Everyone could tell Tom had a crush on Maria.
verbtransitive
To press something so hard that it breaks, bends or is flattened.
Grammar: Takes an object: crush the can.
Patterns
- crush something
- crush something with something
Please crush the empty cans before recycling them.
The falling rock crushed the car's roof.
He crushed the ice with a hammer.
verbtransitivefigurative
To defeat someone completely or to destroy hopes or a rebellion.
Grammar: Often figurative: crush the opposition.
Patterns
- crush someone
- crush something
The army crushed the uprising within a week.
The team crushed their rivals, winning ten to zero.
The news crushed her hopes of getting the job.
nounsingular
A dense crowd of people pressed together.
Grammar: Usually with a: a crush of people.
Patterns
- a crush of people
We were caught in the crush at the stadium gate.
A crush of shoppers surged through the doors.
Word forms
| plural | crushes |
|---|---|
| third person singular | crushes |
| past tense | crushed |
| past participle | crushed |
| -ing form | crushing |
Common combinations
- have a crush on someone
- I think Jade has a crush on you.
- a secret crush
- He kept his secret crush hidden for months.
- crush a can
- She crushed the can under her shoe.
- crush the opposition
- The party crushed the opposition in the vote.
- crush someone's hopes
- The rejection crushed her hopes.
- a crush of people
- A crush of fans waited by the stage door.
Synonyms and how they differ
- infatuation
- Infatuation is a stronger, more obsessive attraction, whereas a crush is milder and usually harmless.
- squash
- Squash means to flatten something soft, while crush suggests breaking or ruining it.
- defeat
- Defeat simply means beating someone, but crush implies a total, overwhelming win.
- smash
- Smash suggests breaking into pieces with force, whereas crush implies pressing.
Opposites
Word family
- crusher noun
- a machine or person that crushes things
- crushing adjective
- overwhelming or devastating
- crushingly adverb
- in an overwhelming way
- crushed adjective
- squashed or deeply disappointed
Commonly confused: crush or crash?
crush vs crash
Crash means to collide or fall violently, while crush means to press hard until something is damaged.
Practice
Which preposition completes the sentence? He has a crush ____ his lab partner.
Choose one answer.
The standard pattern is have a crush on someone. At, with and for are not used in this phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “crush”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.