# crushing

Pronunciation: say "KRUSH-ing" /ˈkɹʌ.ʃɪŋ/

## Adjective

1. Having enough force to overpower, defeat, or overwhelm whatever it presses against.
   - Simple: Strong or heavy enough to overpower, beat, or press down on something completely.
   - _The team suffered a crushing defeat in the championship final._
   - _Rising rents placed a crushing burden on small shop owners._
2. Causing deep disappointment or loss of hope; emotionally devastating.
   - Simple: So sad or disappointing that it takes away all your hope.
   - _The rejection letter dealt a crushing blow to her confidence._
   - _His sudden resignation was crushing for the entire department._

## Verb

3. Present participle of crush. — present participle and gerund of crush
   - Simple: Present participle of crush. Use this form when the action is happening right now.
   - _The new machine is crushing tons of ore every hour._
   - _They are crushing ripe grapes to make wine._

## Noun

4. The act or process of pressing something with enough force to break or deform it.
   - Simple: The act of pressing something so hard that it breaks or loses its shape.
   - _The crushing of the ore releases tiny particles of metal._
   - _Factory crushing reduces the cocoa beans to a fine paste._
5. A former method of execution in which heavy weights were piled on a victim until death.
   - Simple: An old way of killing a prisoner by piling heavy weights on the body.
   - _The court condemned the silent prisoner to crushing beneath iron and stone._
   - _The judge ordered death by crushing, and the prisoner lay under the loaded boards for two days before he died._
6. Material that has been reduced to small fragments through crushing.
   - Simple: Material that has been broken into small pieces by being pressed hard.
   - _The contractor ordered several tons of crushing for the driveway base._
   - _Loose crushing covered the surface of the new running track._
7. The process of pressing harvested sugarcane to extract the juice used to make sugar.
   - Simple: The pressing of sugarcane to squeeze out its sweet juice.
   - _Each season the crushing of the cane lasts several intense months._
   - _Engineers improved the crushing to draw more juice from every stalk._

## Origin

Formed from the verb "crush" combined with the suffix "-ing".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/crushing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).