crash
Pluralcrashes
Verbcrashes, crashing, crashed
Pluralcrashes
Formscrashes, crashing, crashed
- 1An accident in which a car, airplane, or other vehicle collides with something or wrecks.
The plane crash killed everyone on board.
Investigators spent weeks studying what caused the crash.
UsagePeople are hurt or killed in a crash; common pairings are car crash and plane crash.
- 2Of a vehicle, person, or object, to hit something or the ground hard or fall violently, often so that it is damaged or wrecked, or to make a vehicle do this.
The drone crashed when its battery suddenly died.
Heavy branches can crash onto parked cars during a bad storm.
UsageUsually with a preposition: crash into a tree, crash to the floor. With an object: crash a car into a wall.
Similarsmash
- 3Of a computer or program, to stop working suddenly because of an error, or to make one do this.
The browser crashed when it ran out of memory.
Poorly written programs crash whenever they hit unexpected input.
UsageThe program is the subject: the app crashed. With an object, the cause is the subject: a bad file can crash the app.
- 4A sudden, large fall in business activity or stock prices, often setting off further failures.
The 1929 crash plunged the country into a long depression.
Investors feared another crash as prices kept sliding.
UsageSet phrase: the stock market crash. A famous one is often named by its year, as in the 1929 crash.
Similarcollapse, slump, meltdown, downturn
Oppositeboom
Note
Finance keeps the word for a fall that is sudden and steep, the kind that often drags other firms and banks down with it. The matching verb belongs to the general "collapse" meaning: markets and prices crash.
- 5To take a sudden and severe turn for the worse; to deteriorate rapidly and catastrophically.
Her grades crashed after she started working night shifts.
When demand disappears overnight, whole industries crash.
UsageA phrase with to or into often says where the fall ends: prices crashed to a record low.
Similarcollapse, fail, founder, fold
Note
The verb of collapse that pairs with two specialist nouns, a market collapse and a population collapse: the United States' stock market crashed in October 1929, and the Atlantic cod population crashed off Canada despite fishing quotas. A following phrase often names where the fall ends: Mario Pei wrote in 1945 of balance-of-power peaces that crashed into new conflicts.
- 6A malfunction of computer software or hardware that causes it to stop working or shut down.
The crash forced everyone to reboot their machines.
The update fixed a crash that hit whenever users opened very large spreadsheets.
Similarfailure, malfunction, breakdown
- 7To strike something forcefully and with great impact.
The shortstop crashed a double off the left-field wall to score two runs.
The striker can crash a shot into the top corner from well outside the box.
Note
Sports reporting keeps this sense busy. Phil McNulty of BBC Sport writes that Eric Dier crashed a free-kick past the keeper, and a New York Times line quoted by John Nogowski has Babe Ruth crashing out three home runs. The object can name the ball, the shot, or the resulting hit, such as a double or home run. The verb emphasizes the force of the strike.
- 8To go to sleep, especially suddenly from tiredness, or to spend the night somewhere informally, such as on a friend's couch.
He crashed early after working a double shift.
After the marathon, runners often crash for the rest of the day.
UsageOften crash on a couch or crash at a friend's place.
- 9Short for gatecrash: to attend a party or other event without being invited or without paying.
A dozen students crashed the senior prom before being thrown out.
Reporters tried to crash the closed-door meeting.
Note
Clipped from gatecrash, the verb works with or without an object: you crash a party, or you apologize for crashing. Billy Joel's "You May Be Right" (1980) has a familiar line in which the singer admits to turning up uninvited at someone's party. The object is usually the event, such as a party, a prom or a meeting.
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- In this sense, crash is shortened from gatecrash. en.wiktionary.org
- Billy Joel's song You May Be Right was released in 1980. en.wikipedia.org
- The song's narrator says he attended someone's party uninvited. billyjoel.com
- The object can also denote a place. A congressional hearing transcript uses "crashed the White House" for unauthorized entry into the building. govinfo.gov
- 10A sudden, intense, loud sound, such as the one cymbals make.
A sudden crash of cymbals ended the symphony.
The vase fell and shattered with a tremendous crash.
Similarbang, clash, boom, clatter
Note
The noise is, at heart, the sound of breaking. It suits loud sounds that arrive all at once and spread, such as a crash of cymbals, of thunder or of falling crockery.
- 11
- 12Done quickly and intensively over a short period, often on short notice.
The team put together a crash program to fix the bug.
Engineers launched a crash effort to rebuild the bridge.
UsageUsed before a noun, mostly in set phrases: crash course, crash diet, crash program.
Similarintensive, accelerated, rush
Less common meanings
- 13To sink into depression or lethargy after a period of euphoria, especially once a drug's high has worn off.
Users often crash badly once the stimulant leaves their system.
Once the thrill of opening night wore off, the whole cast seemed to crash at the same time.
UsageCome down says the same more gently; crash says the fall was sudden and hard.
Note
The verb behind the drug comedown noun pictures euphoria as a height and its end as a fall. It takes no object: people crash when a stimulant wears off, and just as easily after weeks of excitement, a long trip or a big event.
- 14
- 15A sudden steep fall in the population of a species or other kind of organism, which can sometimes lead to its extinction.
Biologists recorded a dramatic crash in the frog population that year.
Repeated population crashes pushed the species toward extinction.
UsageUsually population crash, or a crash in the numbers of something.
Similarcollapse, decline, plunge
Oppositeboom
Note
Ecologists use the word for the fall itself and keep it distinct from what may follow. A crash is the plunge in numbers, and extinction is its possible end.
- 16A group of rhinoceroses moving or resting together.
A crash of rhinoceroses thundered across the savanna at dusk.
Rangers counted twelve animals in the crash that morning.
Similarherd
Note
It is one of the playful collective nouns for animals, and writers enjoy it. Patrick F. McManus counted a crash of rhinoceros among his favorite group terms. Others use it straight, as when E. Melanie Watt notes in Black Rhinos that a group of rhinos is called a crash. Notice the unchanged plural in a crash of rhinoceros, the form Claude Herve-Bazin uses for the Tsavo herd.
- 17To speed up a project, task, or schedule by assigning extra resources to it.
- 18To hand something over to someone as a favor.
- 19To take a subject at a higher level without having studied it at a lower level first.
- 20A coarse, rough type of linen fabric.
Showing meanings only.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English crasshen ("to break into pieces"), of uncertain origin. It may come from a variant of crasen ("to break") with a formative suffix, or from a variant of craken ("to crack, break open").
Checked 7 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Crash derives from Middle English crasshen, meaning 'to break into pieces'. en.wiktionary.org
- Its earlier origin is uncertain. en.wiktionary.org
- One proposed derivation connects it with crasen, meaning 'to break', and a formative suffix. en.wiktionary.org
- Another proposed derivation connects it with a variant of craken, meaning 'to crack, break open'. en.wiktionary.org