crusher

See also: Crusher

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɹʌʃə/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

crusher (plural crushers)

1. Someone or something that crushes.
   • 1878, Samuel Butler, Life and Habit, London: Trübner & Co., page 1:

     […] 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.

   • 1955 [609–632], “The Backbiter”, in Arthur J. Arberry, transl., The Koran Interpreted, →ISBN, page 664:

     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?

2. A machine designed to crush rocks.
3. (slang, dated) A policeman.
   • 1851, Henry Mayhew, “The Literature of Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor‎^[1], volume 1, page 25:

     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?'

   • 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 110:

     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.

4. One who elicits a crush or intense infatuation in another.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 4, in The History of Pendennis. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     “She is a crusher, ain’t she now!” Mr. Foker asked of his companion.

Derived terms

• beetle-crusher
• bit crusher
• crumb crusher
• crusher gauge
• garlic crusher
• gyratory crusher
• mud-crusher
• quartz crusher
• sandshoe crusher

 

Translations

someone or something that crushes

• Greek:

  Ancient: θραύστης m (thraústēs)

• Portuguese: esmagador (pt) m

a machine designed to crush rocks

• Latin: fractaria f