noun

1. A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.

2. A critical moment or event.

3. A problem that leads to a crisis.

Synonyms: crisp, crumble

verb

1. To crush something, especially food, with a noisy crackling sound.

   “When I came home, Susan was watching TV with her feet up on the couch, crunching a piece of celery.”

2. To be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.

   “Beetles crunched beneath the men's heavy boots as they worked.”

3. To calculate or otherwise process (e.g. to crunch numbers: to perform mathematical calculations). Presumably from the sound made by mechanical calculators.

   “That metadata makes it much easier for the search engine to crunch the data for queries.”