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Definition of "crash" []

  • To break violently or noisily; smash. (verb-intransitive)
  • To undergo sudden damage or destruction on impact: Their car crashed into a guardrail. The airplane crashed over the ocean. (verb-intransitive)
  • To make a sudden loud noise: breakers crashing against the rocks. (verb-intransitive)
  • To move noisily or so as to cause damage: went crashing through the woods. (verb-intransitive)
  • To undergo a sudden severe downturn, as a market or economy. (verb-intransitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Use "crash" in a sentence
  • "The _crash, crash, crash, crash_ of four heavy shells, one following another almost as quickly as you would read the words, focused all one's attention on that point."
  • "You can just hear, through the crash, the shriek of a third and fourth shell as they come tearing down the vault of heaven -- _crash -- crash_."
  • "For some odd reason, people who work in a field where the word crash brings to mind human injury rather than balky software tend to work slowly and methodically."