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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

crusher en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • /ˈkɹʌʃə/ (UK)
  • (Australia) audio

Etymology

From crush + -er (agent noun suffix), or, for one who elicits a crush, + -er (patient suffix).

Meanings

  1. Someone or something that crushes.
    • Woe unto every backbiter, slanderer, who has gathered riches and counted them over thinking his riches have made him immortal! ¶ No indeed, he shall be thrust into the Crusher, and what shall teach thee what is the Crusher? 1955 [609–632], “The Backbiter”, in Arthur J. Arberry, transl., The Koran Interpreted, →ISBN, page 664:
    • […] for unless a matter be true enough to stand a good deal of misrepresentation, its truth is not of a very robust order, and the blame will rather lie with its own delicacy than with the carelessness of the crusher. 1878, Samuel Butler, Life and Habit, London: Trübner & Co., page 1:
  2. A machine designed to crush rocks.
  3. (dated, slang) A policeman.
    • Back in the lobby he bought a copy of Time but didn't like the way the plain-clothes crushers looked at him, and left. 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 110:
    • Anything about the police sets them a talking at once. […] 'The blessed crushers are everywhere,' shouted one. 'I wish I'd been there to have had a shy at the eslops,' said another. And then a man sung out: 'O, don't I like the Bobbys?' 1851, Henry Mayhew, “The Literature of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 25:
  4. (obsolete, slang) Something overwhelming.
    • “She is a crusher, ain’t she now!” Mr. Foker asked of his companion. 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 4, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
crushers Number=Plur lexicographic

Coordinates

dresser · breaker

Deriveds

garlic crusher · mud-crusher · crusher gauge · crusher gage · rockcrusher · gyratory crusher · beetle-crusher · crumb crusher · corn crusher · sandshoe crusher · clodcrusher · bit crusher · toe-crusher · mussel-crusher · quartz crusher · musselcrusher

Descendants

crusher

Translations (7)

bg трошачка (a machine designed to crush rocks) · bg трошач (someone or something that crushes) · ca triturador (someone or something that crushes) · grc θραύστης (someone or something that crushes) · la fractaria (a machine designed to crush rocks) · pt esmagador (someone or something that crushes) · nl crusher (a machine designed to crush rocks)