1
as in shortage
a falling short of an essential or desirable amount or number
a severe energy crunch that resulted in long lines at the gas pumps
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in crisis
a time or state of affairs requiring prompt or decisive action
a player who's always good in a crunch, like when we need a goal to win the soccer match
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of crunch
Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2025
Last year, faced with a serious budget crunch, Bass and the council eliminated dozens of civilian positions in the department, all of them already vacant.
—David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2025
Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2025
Software would crunch the data and turn it into a map with AI techniques — similar to, but much better than how a car might try to figure out the map while driving.
—Brad Templeton, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for crunch 
Noun
This could be a tight year for tax prep–the accounting talent shortage combined with rising costs is causing a tax preparer crunch in some areas.
—Kelly Phillips Erb, Forbes, 11 Jan. 2025
Last year, faced with a serious budget crunch, Bass and the council eliminated dozens of civilian positions in the department, all of them already vacant.
—David Zahniser, Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2025
Verb
In addition, the report authors combined data from 38 studies and crunched the numbers themselves to see whether there was an overall dose-response relationship between fluoride and IQ.
—Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 6 Jan. 2025
Software would crunch the data and turn it into a map with AI techniques — similar to, but much better than how a car might try to figure out the map while driving.
—Brad Templeton, Forbes, 2 Jan. 2025
See all Example Sentences for crunch
Recent Examples of Synonyms for crunch
Noun
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Mass deportations could lead to labor shortages impacting the economic success and operational efficiencies of restaurants across Illinois.—
Justin Gest,
Newsweek,
20 Jan. 2025
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The dangerous cold, multiple snowstorms and California’s devastating wildfires have caused an emergency shortage of platelets and some blood types at the American Red Cross.—
Karina Tsui,
CNN,
20 Jan. 2025
Noun
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In Episode 5, the strongest of the five that critics screened for review, Dr. Watson cares for a twenty-something woman amid her increasingly challenging sickle cell crisis.—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
26 Jan. 2025
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The Baltimore City Health Department has implemented several strategies to combat the opioid crisis, focusing on prevention, treatment access and harm reduction.—
Pradeep Thomas,
Baltimore Sun,
26 Jan. 2025
Verb
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Shane and Ted gritted their teeth and checked their watches as the other passengers oohed and ahhed.—
Darryn King,
Forbes,
13 Jan. 2025
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By channeling guts and grit into their work, these 10 performers broke away from the pack.—
Natasha Frost,
New York Times,
31 Dec. 2024
Noun
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After an underwhelming opening, the Disney release has shown good staying power, taking advantage of January’s lack of competition.—
J. Kim Murphy,
Variety,
25 Jan. 2025
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But he will occasionally get beat by good shooters and his lack of size has been exposed at times by pros.—
Scott Wheeler,
The Athletic,
25 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Cal Fire representatives said the current parking mess has already impacted them because the driveway to their station enters the highway not far from the trail head.—
J. Harry Jones,
Ramona Sentinel,
19 July 2017
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Now, Maineri heads into year 12 with 18 pitchers on his roster, hoping that rising junior Caleb Gilbert and sophomore-to-be Zach Hess will emerge at the top of the pitching rotation.—
John Roach,
NOLA.com,
19 July 2017
Verb
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The Colorado Department of Transportation’s statewide map showed all interstate and major state highways open as of 10:30 a.m., with dozens of plows busy scraping roadways.—
Max Levy,
The Denver Post,
18 Jan. 2025
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The project, which has over 1,200 submissions, has evolved to include an army of volunteers who scrape data from Zillow and report violations to the city’s 311 hotline, the LA County Department of Consumer and Business Affairs, and the state Attorney General’s office.—
Elizabeth Stamp,
Architectural Digest,
17 Jan. 2025
Verb
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For seeds with a hard seed coat, scraping them on 150-grit sandpaper scratches the seed coat enough to allow the seed to soak up or imbibe water.—
Markis Hill,
Kansas City Star,
17 Jan. 2025
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Many lawyers are also scratching their heads over Drake’s case.—
Justin Curto,
Vulture,
16 Jan. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Crunch.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/crunch. Accessed 29 Jan. 2025.
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