Word.ws English Dictionary

crushing

/ˈkɹʌ.ʃɪŋ/

crushing is the present participle and gerund of crush.

Adjective

crushing (comparative more crushing, superlative most crushing)

  1. That crushes; overwhelming.
    • a crushing defeat
    • The fruits of these kickstarted endeavors began to show in 1915, first in the deployment of a new range of depth charges. These were, mercifully, smaller than Jellicoe's "crushing hand of God" prototype, and, whilst practically just as lethal to submarines, they were significantly less risky to the...2019 July 24, Drachinifel, 11:06 from the start, in Anti-Sub Warfare in WW1 - From Hammers to Hunter-Killers, archived from the original on 24 Nov 2022
  2. Devastatingly disheartening.
    • crushing blow
    • crushing guilt

Noun

crushing (countable and uncountable, plural crushings)

  1. The action of the verb to crush.
  2. A former method of execution by placing heavy weights on the victim.
  3. (in plural) Crushed material.
    • oilseed crushings
  4. The act of subjecting sugarcane to crushing.
    • Mr. Holtze speaks with feeling upon this subject. His own experience had shown him the folly of planting sugar in dry soil, at a distance from water; the natural consequence was that, though the cane grew on the ironstone ridges of Palmerston, it would not throw up sufficient juice to make a good...1887, Harriet W. Daly, Digging, Squatting, and Pioneering Life in the Northern Territory of South Australia, page 265

Meaning of crush

Verb

crush (third-person singular simple present crushes, present participle crushing, simple past and past participle crushed)

  1. To press between two hard objects; to squeeze so as to alter the natural shape or integrity, or to force together into a mass.
    • to crush grapes
    Synonyms:
    squash, ace
  2. To reduce to fine particles by pounding or grinding.
    • to crush quartz
    Synonyms:
    comminute, pulverize
  3. (figuratively) To overwhelm by pressure or weight.
    • After the corruption scandal, the opposition crushed the ruling party in the elections
    Synonyms:
    overtake
  4. (colloquial, figuratively) To do impressively well at (sports events; performances; interviews; etc.).
    • They had a gig recently at Madison Square—totally crushed it!
  5. To oppress or grievously burden.
  6. To overcome completely; to subdue totally.
    • The sultan's black guard crushed every resistance bloodily.

See all 24 meanings of crush

Synonyms of crushing

Forms of crushing

Adjective
comparativemore crushing
superlativemost crushing
Noun
pluralcrushings

Origin of crushing

By surface analysis, crush + -ing.

Words formed from crushing

Phrases with crushing

Words that rhyme with crushing

Questions about crushing

What does crushing mean?
Crushing means that crushes; overwhelming.
What is crushing the present participle and gerund of?
Crushing is the present participle and gerund of crush.
What part of speech is crushing?
Crushing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce crushing?
Crushing is pronounced /ˈkɹʌ.ʃɪŋ/.

Words near crushing in the dictionary

  1. crushes it
  2. crushes on
  3. crushes out
  4. crushest
  5. crusheth
  6. crushing
  7. crushing it
  8. crushing on
  9. crushing out
  10. crushingest
  11. crushingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: crushing (page history and authors); crush (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-crushing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “crushing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crushing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.