crunch

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To chew with a noisy crackling sound.
• intransitive verb To crush, grind, or tread noisily.
• intransitive verb Slang To perform operations on; manipulate or process (numerical or mathematical data).
• intransitive verb To chew noisily with a crackling sound.
• intransitive verb To move with a crushing sound.
• intransitive verb To produce or emit a crushing sound.
• noun The act or sound of crunching.
• noun A modified sit-up having a smaller range of motion that reduces back strain and strengthens the abdominal muscles.
• noun A decisive confrontation.
• noun A critical moment or situation, especially one that occurs because of a shortage of time or resources.
• noun A period of financial difficulty characterized by tight money and unavailability of credit.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The act of crunching; the act of penetrating, forcing a passage through, or pressing against anything with a crushing noise.
• To crush with the teeth; chew with violence and noise: as, to crunch a biscuit; hence, to crush or grind violently and audibly in any other way.
• To chew.
• To act or proceed with a sound of crushing or crackling; produce a noise as from crunching anything.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To crush with the teeth; to chew with a grinding noise; to craunch.
• intransitive verb To chew with force and noise; to craunch.
• intransitive verb To grind or press with violence and noise.
• intransitive verb To emit a grinding or craunching noise.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb to crush something with a noisy crackling sound, especially with reference to food
• verb to be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.
• verb slang to calculate or otherwise process (e.g. to crunch numbers: to perform mathematical calculations)
• noun A noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching.
• noun A critical moment or event.
• noun ) A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb reduce to small pieces or particles by pounding or abrading
• noun a critical situation that arises because of a shortage (as a shortage of time or money or resources)
• noun the act of crushing
• noun the sound of something crunching
• verb press or grind with a crushing noise
• verb make a crushing noise
• verb chew noisily