crunch

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
crunch/krʌntʃ/

▶verb

• 1 crush (a hard or brittle foodstuff) with the teeth, making a loud grinding sound.

• 2 make or move with a loud grinding sound.

• 3 (especially of a computer) process (large quantities of data).

▶noun

• 1 a crunching sound.

• 2 (the crunch) informal the crucial point of a situation.

• 3 a severe shortage of money or credit: the beleaguered company has become the latest victim of the credit crunch.

• 4 a sit-up.

– derivatives
cruncher noun.

– origin C19: var. of C17 cranch (prob. imitative), assoc. with crush and munch.