crashing

Pluralcrashings

1. 1
   verb

   Present participle of crash.

   The cymbals were crashing at the climax of the symphony.

   Stock prices were crashing faster than the brokers could react.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every use of the verb, including two that are easy to miss: the slang sense of gatecrashing (crashing a wedding) and the planner's sense of speeding up a schedule with extra resources (crashing the project). As a gerund it takes its object directly, as in crashing the car was a mistake. That sets it apart from the noun for the sound, which needs of: the crashing of the dishes.

2. 2
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The sound or violent action of something striking and breaking apart.

   The crashing of the dishes echoed through the empty house.

   A sudden crashing in the woods made the whole group freeze.

   Similarsmashing, clattering, banging

   Note

   A noun that can be counted. It takes a plural, and crashings names a series of separate blows of sound, as in the ceaseless crashings of waves on the beach. The singular, usually framed with the and of, suits one event or a continuous din. The plural suits anything that comes again and again: surf, thunder, a shelf of crockery giving way piece by piece.

3. 3
   adjective

   Severe, drastic, or utterly complete in degree; absolute.

   The new policy proved a crashing failure within months.

   He is a crashing bore who corners guests for hours.

   Similarutter, complete, total, absolute, abject

   Note

   An intensifier that keeps a trace of noise and collapse, so it gravitates toward nouns of ending and ruin. Donald J. Lange's The Life and Poetry of George Darley (2020) calls an 1842 stage debut a crashing failure, and Simon R. Green's Deathstalker War (2016) brings advances to crashing halts. It belongs before the noun, as in a crashing failure or a crashing bore, and it adds emphasis rather than any literal sound.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3