crash

Etymology 1

From Middle English crasshen, crasschen, craschen (“to break into pieces”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps from a variant of earlier *crasken, from crasen (“to break”) + -k (formative suffix); or from earlier *craskien, *craksien, a variant of craken (“to crack, break open”) (for form development compare break, brask, brash).

noun

1. A sudden, intense, loud sound, as made for example by cymbals.
   The piece ended in a crescendo, building up to a crash of cymbals.
   After the lightning came the crash of thunder.
2. An automobile, airplane, or other vehicle accident.
   She broke two bones in her body in a car crash.
   Nobody survived the plane crash.
3. (computing) A malfunction of computer software or hardware which causes it to shut down or become partially or totally inoperable.
   My computer had a crash so I had to reboot it.
4. (finance) A sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks (especially one that causes additional failures).
   the stock market crash
5. (informal) A comedown from a drug.
6. (collective) A group of rhinoceroses.
   One of my favorites among the terms of groups of creatures is a crash of rhinoceros. I can imagine an African guide saying to his client, “Shoot, dammit, shoot! Here comes the whole bloody crash of rhinoceros!” […] Personally, I think I’d just as soon come across a crash of rhinoceros as a knot of toad. p. 1991, Patrick F. McManus, “Nincompoopery and Other Group Terms”, in The Grasshopper Trap, Henry Holt and Company, page 103
   The largest group of black rhinos reported was made up of 13 individuals. A group of rhinos is called a crash. 1998, E. Melanie Watt, Black Rhinos, page 19
   Out in the water a crash of rhinoceros-like animals browse belly deep through a bed of aquatic plants. 1999, Edward Osborne Wilson, The Diversity of Life, page 126
   The crash of rhinoceros at Tsavo now numbers almost 200. 2003, Claude Herve-Bazin, Judith Farr, Kenya and Tanzania, page 23
7. (ecology) A sudden decline in any living form's population levels, often leading to extinction.

adj

1. Quick, fast, intensive, impromptu.
   crash course
   crash diet

verb

1. (intransitive) To collide with something destructively, fall or come down violently.
   When the car crashed into a house, the driver was heavily injured.
2. (transitive) To cause something to collide with something else, especially when this results in damage.
   I'm sorry for crashing the bike into a wall. I'll pay for repairs.
3. (transitive) To hit or strike with force
   Roy Hodgson's side were dominant and fully merited the lead given to them when Eric Dier crashed a 20-yard free-kick high past keeper Igor Akinfeev with 17 minutes left. 11 June 2016, Phil McNulty, “England 1-1 Russia”, in BBC Sport
   Even the staid New York Times was gushing: “Rising to the glorious heights of his heyday, Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat, crashed out three home runs against the Pittsburgh Pirates Saturday afternoon but it was not enough." 2022, John Nogowski, Last Time Out: Big-League Farewells of Baseball's Greats, page 8
4. To make a sudden loud noise.
   Thunder crashed directly overhead.
5. (transitive, slang) Short for gatecrash.
   We weren't invited to the party so we decided to crash it.
   "Anyway, sorry about crashing. I know you're doing a sort of 'talk freely about magic' thing, and I don't have any of my own, but..." 8 November 2019, Dan Shive, El Goonish Shive (webcomic), Comic for Friday, Nov 8, 2019
6. (transitive, management) To accelerate a project or a task or its schedule by devoting more resources to it.
   Using the project plan, the team started to work out different scenarios to crash the schedule and bring the date to the regulatory deadline. 2008, Rick A. Morris, Brette McWhorter Sember, Project management that works, page 109
7. (intransitive, slang) To make or experience informal temporary living arrangements, especially overnight.
   Hey dude, can I crash at your pad?
8. (transitive, slang) To give, as a favor.
   'I been pissin' blood,' he said, grinning. Then frowning. 'Crash us a tenner, eh?' 2005, Charlie Williams, Fags and Lager, page 29
   Crash us a cancer stick, Fitz: I could bloody murder a fag, as I delight in telling Americans 2014, David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks, page 99
   'I'll show you what needs doing. But first..." She hesitated. 'I don't suppose you could crash me a ciggy, while you're here, could you?' 2015, Lucy Diamond, Summer at Shell Cottage
9. (intransitive, slang) To lie down for a long rest, sleep or nap, as from tiredness or exhaustion.
10. (intransitive) To experience a period of depression and/or lethargy after a period of euphoria, as after the euphoric effect of a psychotropic drug has dissipated.
11. (computing, hardware, software, intransitive) To terminate extraordinarily.
    If the system crashes again, we'll have it fixed in the computer shop.
12. (computing, hardware, software, transitive) To cause to terminate extraordinarily.
    Double-clicking this icon crashes the desktop.
13. To take a sudden and severe turn for the worse; to rapidly and catastrophically deteriorate.
    And the unvarying lesson of history is that all such balance of power peaces have crashed into new conflicts, as soon as the unstable equilibrium was disturbed, witness the Peace of Westphalia, the Congress of Vienna, and, in our own time, Versailles. 1945, Mario Pei, The American Road to Peace: A Constitution for the World, page 20
    In October 1929, the United States' stock market crashed, at the end of a buoyant decade in its domestic economy. 1994, National Economic Review - Volumes 28-30, page 2
    Despite the quotas determined by fisheries scientists, the Atlantic cod population crashed in the mid-1980s leading to a complete moratorium for fishing the species within Canadian waters. 2003, W.M. Roth, Toward an Anthropology of Graphing, page 43
    Nature, propelled by its unidirectional increasing entropic disorder, without the containing Schrodinger and de Broglie λ = h/p waves, would have probably crashed out of existence long ago! 2006, Ashok Sengupta, Chaos, Nonlinearity, Complexity, page 302
    I told him that if his patients got in trouble and started to crash, there are several things that I could do for him. 2016, Thomas J. Cortez, It Happened on My Shift
    The analysis presented in Figure 5.2 highlights the importance of technological shocks, which were for example vital in explaining the Information Technology driven bubble of the late 1990s that crashed in 2001. 2022, Ioanna T. Kokores, Monetary Policy and Financial Stability, page 147

Etymology 2

Uncertain; perhaps compare Russian крашени́на (krašenína, “coarse linen”).

noun

1. (textiles) A type of rough linen.
   Unlocking the door of her bath-room she went inside, and soon emerged, bringing a rug, which she spread upon the floor of the gallery, and two huge hair pillows covered with crash, which she placed against the front of the building. 1899, Kate Chopin, The Awakening