Crunch is a sharp, crushing sound, like when you bite into a fresh apple or step on fallen leaves. That crisp noise is a crunch. Potato chips crunch between your teeth. Gravel crunches under bicycle tires. Snow crunches underfoot on a cold winter morning.

The word also describes the act of crushing something: you might crunch numbers when doing lots of calculations, working through problem after problem. Athletes crunch their stomach muscles during sit-ups, tightening and contracting them.

When time is running short, people face a crunch: a moment of pressure when everything needs to happen quickly. A student in a time crunch before a deadline might stay up late finishing a project. During the holiday season, stores experience a crunch as everyone shops at once.

Notice how the word suggests pressure or intensity, whether it's the satisfying pressure of biting into something crispy or the stressful pressure of too much work and too little time. The physical sound and the feeling of being squeezed for time share that same sense of compression.