crushing

verb

1. (form-of, gerund, participle, present)present participle and gerund of crush

adj

1. That crushes; overwhelming.

   “a crushing defeat”

   “The fruits of these kickstarted endeavors began to show in 1915, first in the deployment of a new range of depth charges. These were, mercifully, smaller than Jellicoe's "crushing hand of God" prototype, and, whilst practically just as lethal to submarines, they were significantly less risky to the launching ship, and could also be carried in larger numbers.”

   “The TSSA union stated that he had been carrying out maintenance and died as a result of crushing injuries.”

2. Devastatingly disheartening.

   “crushing blow”

   “crushing guilt”

   “Oh, your dog has leukemia? That’s crushing.”

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The action of the verb to crush.
2. (countable, uncountable)A former method of execution by placing heavy weights on the victim.
3. (countable, in-plural, uncountable)Crushed material.

   “oilseed crushings”

4. (countable, uncountable)The act of subjecting sugarcane to crushing.

   “Mr. Holtze speaks with feeling upon this subject. His own experience had shown him the folly of planting sugar in dry soil, at a distance from water; the natural consequence was that, though the cane grew on the ironstone ridges of Palmerston, it would not throw up sufficient juice to make a good crushing.”