▪ I. crash, v.
(kræʃ)
Also 4 crassche, 5 craschyn, crayschyn, 5–6 crasshe.
[An onomatopœic word having the same relation to crack that clash has to clack and clap: see clash, dash. There are possible associations also with crase, craze (though here the a has been long, and the s pronounced as z prob. from the 14th c.). The mod.Scandinavian langs. show Icel. krassa ‘perfricare, dilacerare’ (Haldors.), Sw. krasa, Da. krase to crackle, and the phrases Sw. slå i kras, Da. gå i kras to dash in pieces, break to shivers; but these are app. only analogous formations.]
1. a. trans. To break in pieces with violence and noise; to dash in pieces, shiver, shatter, smash. (Now somewhat rare.)
| ? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1109 The creest and þe coronalle..with his clubb he crasschede doune. 1535 Coverdale Amos ii. 13 Beholde, I wil crasshe you in sonder. a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Crash, to kill. 1718 Pope Iliad iv. 602 The pond'rous stone..crashed the solid bone. 1840 Dickens Barn. Rudge lix, Crashing the branches as he went. 1849 Robertson Serm. 1st Ser. x. (1866) 171 The tempest that crashes down the forest. 1854 Landor Lett. American 41 To see the valorous and adventurous crasht by the portentous concurrence of brute matter. |
† b. fig. To discuss with violence and noise; to ‘thrash out’.
Obs. rare.
| a 1670 Hacket Abp. Williams (1692) II. 42 He thought them [Calvinistic controversies]..worthy of crashing in the schools, but not in the Church. |
c. To force or drive with a crash or with crashing; to cause to come or go with a crash.
| 1831 Carlyle in Froude Life (1882) II. 172 Two women literally crashing hoarse thunder out of a piano. 1866 Kingsley Herew. ii. 67 Two other knights crashed their horses through the brushwood. |
d. To pass by (a traffic-light) when it is on the point of changing to red or has already done so.
| 1937 L. MacNeice Lett. from Iceland iii. 32 Traffic and changing lights, crashing the amber. 1967 Punch 10 May 662/2 Motorists who saw the bullion robbery van crash the lights in Holloway Road that day. |
2. a. intr. To break or fall to pieces with noise, as when dashed down or violently struck; to smash, break up.
rare. (First
quot. of doubtful sense.)
| 1535 Coverdale Amos ii. 13 Like as a wayne crassheth, y{supt} is full of sheaues. 1803 J. Bryant in Naval Chron. IX. 240 At the first blow his head crashed. |
b. To move or go with crashing. Now
freq. with
adv. Also
fig.| 1694 Acct. Sev. Late Voy. ii. (1711) 44 Crashing and grinding against each other. 1856 Stanley Sinai & Pal. i. (1858) 89 The rocks..overlap, and crumble, and crack, as if they would crash over you. 1860 T. Martin tr. Horace 179 He crash'd through the fray with his terrible spear. 1870 Lowell Study Wind. (1886) 24 Some..hand would crash through them and leave them dangling brokenly. 1886 ‘Maxwell Gray’ Silence of Dean Maitland iii. iv, He longed for the..high stone roof to crash in and hide him from that terrible gaze. 1893 M. E. Mann In Summer Shade xxviii, Bob..crashed over and fell in his blood at his murderer's feet. 1903 R. Langbridge Flame & Flood v, She was prepared for some new development which must crash in on her ignorance. 1922 D. H. Lawrence England, my England (1924) 172 Seats had crashed over. |
† 3. a. trans. To strike (the teeth) together with noise; to gnash.
Obs.| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 100 Craschyn, as tethe, fremo, frondeo. 1530 Palsgr. 501/1, I knowe a foole that wyll crasshe his tethe togyther. 1600 Fairfax Tasso vii. xlii. 125 He shakt his head and crasht his teeth for ire. 1646 F. Hawkins Youth's Behav. (1663) 2 Rub not thy teeth nor crash them. |
† b. to crash with the teeth, in same sense.
Obs.| 1530 Palsgr. 500/2 I crasshe with my tethe togyther, je grinche. 1580 Baret Alv. C 1575 He crasheth terribly with his teeth. |
† c. To crush with the teeth; to
craunch.
| 1530 Palsgr. 501/1 Herke howe he crassheth these grystels bytwene his tethe. 1589 Fleming Virg. Georg. ii. 21 Swine haue also crashed and broken akorns. 1614 T. Adams Devil's Banquet 147 A Lyon shall crash their bones. 1622 Bp. Hall Serm. Wks. (1627) 493 Some crashed in peeces by the teeth of lions. 1730–6 [see craunch]. |
† d. intr. (for
pass. To go to pieces noisily between the teeth.
Obs.| 1515 Barclay Egloges ii. (1570) B iij/2 Betwene thy tethe oft time the coles crashes. 1530 Palsgr. 501/1, I crasshe, as a thynge dothe that is cryspe or britell bytwene ones tethe, je crespe. |
4. To make the noise that a hard body does when dashed to pieces or smashed; to make a loud confused noise as of many hard bodies dashing and breaking together.
† Formerly also, to make a crackling noise.
| 1563 Fulke Meteors (1640) 67 b, Tinne is..very porose..which causeth it to crash, when it is broken or bitten. 1583 Stanyhurst Aeneis i. (Arb.) 20 Crash do the rent tacklings [stridorque rudentum]. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. (1662) 99 Something yet crash'd in his belly, as if there were a Bag of Glass in it. a 1771 Gray Wks. (1807) I. 41 Pikes must shiver..Hauberk crash, and helmet ring. 1822 Byron Vis. Judgm. lix, Here crash'd a sturdy oath of stout John Bull. 1864 Skeat Uhland's Poems 69 O'erhead the rolling thunders crash. |
5. The
vb. stem is used adverbially, usually with the
vb. go:
cf. bang, etc.
| 1760 Goldsm. Cit. W. xiv. (1837) 54 Crash went half-a-dozen dragons upon the marble hearthstone. 1805 Southey Madoc in Azt. vi, Crash with that, The Image fell. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. vii. (1889) 61 Crash went the slight deal boards. |
6. a. intr. Of an aircraft or its pilot: to fall or come down violently with the machine out of control. Also of a motor car, motor cycle, or train, or its occupant(s): to suffer damage in an accident. Also
fig. of a business or its proprietor: to suffer financial ruin.
| 1910 R. Loraine Diary in W. Loraine R. Loraine (1938) 106 The machine leapt higher,..then—paff!—I came to earth, having stalled and crashed. 1912 Manch. Courier 1 Sept. 3/1 The machine crashed down into the meadow. 1915 War Illustr. 6 Nov. 288/2 Cpl. Bennett disabled the German machine, which crashed to earth. a 1918 McCudden 5 Yrs. R.F.C. (1919) 122 One of our machines had crashed about a mile away and..both occupants were dead. Ibid. 164 The Hun went down and crashed. 1919 P. Bewsher Green Balls 231 He's getting very low! My God! Did you hear that! He's crashed! 1923 Motor Cycling 26 Sept. 657/2 The first casualty was..one of the favourites, who crashed on Bray Hill, his machine catching fire. 1928 F. E. Baily Golden Vanity xv, Secretaryships to magnates are so precarious. Moreover, if French crashed, who would give his ex-secretary a job? 1970 Times 22 Oct. 4/6 A light aeroplane which crashed near a caravan site. 1971 Daily Tel. 8 Feb. 2/6 A car crashed into a bus stop queue in Aigburth Road, Liverpool, yesterday. |
b. trans. To damage or destroy (an aircraft) in landing; to cause damage to (a vehicle) in an accident.
| 1915 H. Rosher Let. 14 Mar. in In R.N.A.S. (1916) 69 Our aerodrome here is a beastly small one. I have had several narrow shaves already of running into things, and feel sure that before long I shall ‘crash’ something. 1919 A. E. Illingworth Fly Papers 26 ‘If you want a walking stick,’ I said, ‘crash a machine yourself—don't come pinching mine.’ 1928 C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station i. 44 This machine was crashed as a result of a forced landing. Ibid. ix. 136 The last-named officer crashed his machine on landing (owing to the bad condition of the ground). |
c. intr. Computing. To fail suddenly; to undergo a crash (
crash n.1 6 b).
| 1973 Sci. Amer. Apr. 43/3 A computer can ‘crash’, or fail, for any number of reasons. Usually the cause can be traced either to the failure of an electronic component or to a flaw in the program. 1979 Personal Computer World Nov. 51/2 Normally I would put this down to faulty hardware, but the system did not crash under CP/M. 1981 Kilobaud Microcomputing June 103/2 Indiscriminate poking can cause the computer to crash, resulting in the loss of the program. 1983 Daily Tel. 30 Apr. 25/2 Many people, when they find that long programmes keep on crashing, feel the urge to stamp on the computer. 1985 Listener 25 Apr. 38/3 At any moment a change in voltage can wipe out what one has written before ‘saving to disk’ and, even when one has saved, a disk can ‘crash’. |
7. colloq. a. (
orig. U.S.). To break into (a place); to gain admission to (a place, party, etc.) without the proper credentials or an invitation; to gate-crash. Also
transf., to ‘break into’ or enter (a group, profession, etc.). So
to crash the gate: to gate-crash.
| 1922 Dialect Notes V. 147 (Bryn Mawr College) We crashed the gate at a swell joint like some finale hoppers. 1924 G. C. Henderson Keys to Crookdom ii. 20 The grand larcenist..will burglarize a place quickly enough, but the petty thief is too timid as a rule to ‘crash a joint’. 1937 Rotarian Nov. 11/1 To ‘crash a party’. 1938 Wodehouse Code of Woosters vi. 106 Staring at me..as if I had been a ticket-of-leave man who had got in by crashing the gate. 1951 N.Y. Herald Tribune 12 Dec. 27/3 I'm glad to see [he]..crashed television successfully. 1953 R. Fuller Second Curtain v. 80, I hope you'll forgive me crashing your excellent party. 1958 Economist 11 Jan. 117/2 To crash a party—to come uninvited—was branded as inexcusable. |
b. intr. With
in,
into.
| 1929 Dunning & Abbott Broadway iii. 104 Some of Scar Edwards' playmates might try to crash in, looking for trouble. 1931 Runyon Guys & Dolls (1932) ii. 40 He hears rumours of the party, and just crashes in. 1942 O. Nash Face is Familiar 80 The prominent and respectable dignitary who..crashed into a thousand anthologies by remarking, There but for the grace of God go I. 1950 T. S. Eliot Cocktail Party iii. 147 She told me you were giving a party... So I said, I really must crash in. |
c. slang. To sleep,
esp. for a single night or in an emergency.
Cf. crash pad (b).
| 1969 Win 1 Sept. 21/1 The two people who had come for help agreed to take these guys home with them, turn them on, feed them, give them a place to crash, love them a lot and keep them close to them all the next day. 1970 Guardian 31 Mar. 11/1 The homeless one was sure that someone would always offer him a place ‘to crash’. |
▸
Med. colloq. (chiefly
N. Amer.). Of a patient: to suffer cardiac arrest; to deteriorate precipitously, with imminent circulatory and respiratory failure.
| 1983 Santa Barbara News-Press 18 Dec. 1 Courtney..had ‘crashed’. Five nurses and the doctor were bent over the baby, trying to restart her failing heart. 1990 Jrnl. Trauma 30 1548 Failure to do these may put a physician at legal risk..if the patient crashes after being discharged from the emergency department while still impaired by alcohol. 2004 Coventry Evening Tel. (Nexis) 15 July The second time she crashed, Dee was rushed in for a five-hour triple heart bypass operation. |
▪ II. crash, n.1 (
kræʃ)
[f. crash v.] 1. The loud and sudden sound as of a hard body or number of bodies broken by violent percussion, as by being dashed to the ground or against each other; also transferred to the sound of thunder, loud music, etc. (It is often impossible to separate the sound from the action as exemplified in sense 2.)
| 1580 Baret Alv. C 1575 A crash, the noise of a thing that is broken, fragor. 1602 Shak. Ham. ii. ii. 498 Senselesse Illium..Stoopes to his Bace, and with a hideous crash Takes prisoner Pyrrhus eare. 1802 M. Edgeworth Moral T. (1816) I. xv. 120 The windows were..demolished with a terrible crash. 1818 M. W. Shelley Frankenst. vi, The thunder burst with a terrific crash. 1860 Tyndall Glac. i. ii. 12 The echos of the first crash. |
2. a. The breaking to pieces of any heavy hard body or bodies by violent percussion; the shock of such bodies striking and smashing each other.
| 17.. Pope Wks. 1886, X. 263 The decay of beauty and the crash of worlds. [But cf. crush n.] 1718 ― Iliad xvi. 928 The whole forest in one crash descends. 1837 Carlyle Fr. Rev. i. ii. i, The oak..when with far-sounding crash it falls. |
b. fig. The action of falling to ruin suddenly and violently;
spec. sudden collapse or failure of a financial undertaking, or of mercantile credit generally.
| 1817 Coleridge Lay Serm. ii. (Bohn) 424 A rapid series of explosions (in mercantile language, a crash), and a consequent precipitation of the general system. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 663 With what a crash..would the whole vast fabric of society have fallen! 1889 Giffen Case Agst. Bimetallism (1892) 119 At the cost of a financial crash to which the world has yet seen no parallel. 1890 Spectator 12 July, A great crash is expected in South America. Both in the Argentine Republic and Uruguay, everybody has been over-speculating. |
† 3. A bout of revelry, amusement, fighting, etc.; a short spell, spurt.
Obs.| 1549 Chaloner Erasmus on Folly N ij b, To recreate theim selves with sportyng tales a crashe. c 1575 Fulke Confut. Purg. (1577) 40 But first he must rayle a crash at the forsaken Protestantes. 1591 R. Turnbull Exp. Jas. 75 They haue a spirt, a crash, a fit at the worde, and leaue off. a 1652 Brome New Acad. iii. i, Come, Gentlemen, shall we have a crash at cards? 1767 W. Hanbury Charities Ch. Langton 168 We could not have a friendly crash, but we must be troubled with one or more of those fellows [musical performers] to fill up the parts. |
4. Hunting. The outcry made by hounds when they find the game. Also
fig.| 1781 P. Beckford Thoughts on Hunting xiii. 167 Where are all your sorrows,..one halloo has dispelled them all.—What a crash they make! 1837 ‘Nimrod’ Chace, Turf, & Road 50 There is no crash now, and not much music... At the pace these hounds are going there is no time for babbling. 1919 Masefield Reynard 85 But the whimpering rose to a crying crash By the hollow ruin of Tineton Ash. 1949 C. E. Hare Lang. Field Sports (ed. 2) xi. 136 Hounds may speak..with:..Many cries: e.g. on hitting off the line on a screaming scent (a crash). This is more like a ‘muffled roar’. |
5. Theatr. a. (See
quots. 1891 and 1947.)
b. A noise of breaking; the glass, etc., used to imitate the sound of the breaking of windows, etc.
| 1891 Farmer Slang II. 206/2 Crash, the machine used to suggest the roar of thunder; a noise of desperate (and unseen) conflict; an effect of ‘alarums, excursions’ generally. 1921 R. M. Heath A.B.C. of Production 70 ‘Glass crash’, ready off L. up stage. 1947 Gloss. Techn. Theatr. Terms 12 Crash, a hand-operated, magnified version of the watchman's wooden rattle. Ibid. 13 Thunder... Sometimes an ordinary wine or beer barrel..charged with cobble stones.., thus Thunder Crash. 1952 W. Granville Dict. Theatr. Terms 52 Crash, any ‘crash’ effect. Splintering glass is known as a glass crash... A door slam is a door crash; breaking crockery is a china crash. |
6. a. Aeronaut.,
Motoring, etc. The act, or an instance, of crashing. (See
crash v. 6 a.)
| 1917 Sphere 3 Mar. 190/1 This particular victim of a ‘crash’ had been compelled to lie abed..for several weeks. a 1918 J. T. B. McCudden 5 Yrs. R.F.C. (1919) 167 It is the ambition of every youthful pilot to down a Hun in our lines—and then land a crash alongside. Ibid. 185 About the end of May I had my first crash, on a Bristol Scout that I was delivering to J― G―. 1923 Motor Cycling 26 Sept. 659/2 Lowe's retirement was due to a crash caused by a burst front tyre. 1929 Star 21 Aug. 8/2 Air crash that caused 7 deaths. 1970 Times 22 Oct. 4/6 The pilot, who was alone in the plane, was killed in the crash. 1971 Daily Tel. 1 Jan. 4/4 (headline) 70 feared dead in rail crash. |
b. Computing. A sudden failure which puts a system out of action, often with the loss of data.
| 1972 Computer Jrnl. XV. 203/1 If there is a crash, we have an armoury of little programs to aid the system programmers in sorting out the system. 1977 G. Wiederhold Database Design xi. 503 Most vulnerable are the most recent records. In a crash some of these may be lost in buffers which have not yet been written. 1982 What's New in Computing Nov. 40/3 Common cable ducts..have resulted in a great deal of crosstalk with resultant system crashes. 1984 Austral. Microcomputer Mag. Jan. 16/1 Wouldn't it be great to be able to program or enter data to a computer verbally? No clumsy typing, no program crashes because of missing or wrong punctuation, no eye-straining monitors. |
7. a. attrib. and
Comb., as
crash barrier, a barrier erected to halt an aeroplane, car, etc., that goes off its intended course;
crash boat orig. U.S., a boat used to rescue those involved in a crash at sea;
crash cymbal, a cymbal hung in such a way as to make a crashing noise when struck with a drumstick;
crash-dive, (
a) a sudden dive made by a submarine when surprised or in imminent danger; (
b) a dive made by an aircraft, ending in a crash; so
crash-dive v. trans. and intr. (also
transf.);
crash-halt, of a motor vehicle: an abrupt halt; also
transf.;
crash-helmet, a helmet worn,
esp. by motor-cyclists, to protect the head; hence
crash-helmeted a., wearing a crash-helmet;
crash landing, a landing involving damage to the aircraft; so (back-formation)
crash-land v. intr.; also
fig.;
crash pad, (
a) a shock-absorbing buffer for protection of passengers in aircraft, motor cars, etc.; (
b)
slang, a place to sleep,
esp. for a single night or in an emergency;
crash programme, a course of research, training, etc., undertaken with rapidity and intensive effort,
e.g. in an emergency;
crash-stop = crash-halt;
crash-tackle v. trans. and intr. Football, to tackle with great vigour; so
crash-tackling ppl. a.;
crash truck,
wagon orig. U.S., an emergency vehicle equipped for aid after an aeroplane crash, etc.
| 1947 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LI. 823/1 Crash barriers, as they were first called, were introduced into the Royal Navy in 1938. 1970 Daily Tel. 28 Aug. 1/7 About 50 miles of the 680 miles of motorway in use have crash barriers. |
| 1936 Baltimore Sun 3 June 24/5 The crash boat pulled the midshipman and Wood from the water. 1946 L. G. Green So Few are Free (1948) v. 81 Until war brought crash boats into Cape waters, the record for the run from Table Bay to Dassen was held by a harbour tug. |
| 1927 Melody Maker Apr. 387/1 It is impossible to execute this properly on the crash cymbal, because, as this crash has to be damped out to get the proper rhythm, both hands are occupied. 1961 A. Berkman Singers' Gloss. Show Bus. 34 ‘Dance cymbals’ is a general classification which includes: ‘fast’.., ‘splash’.., ‘bounce’, ‘ride’ or ‘crash’ (specially tapered cymbals). |
| 1919 Times 22 Mar. 8/1 The submarine commander, if the flying boats were sighted, could do a ‘crash dive’. 1928 C. F. S. Gamble North Sea Air Station xii. 177 As soon as those aboard the submarine saw the seaplane, they ‘crash-dived’ the boat. 1942 Air News Aug. 38/2 A legend became current that the Nipponese pilots would crash-dive their airplanes rather than permit their capture intact. 1943 Times 6 Dec. 4/5 The U-boat crash-dived and results were not observed. 1945 Daily Express 20 Apr., Luftwaffe pilots have adopted Japanese suicide tactics... Pilots crash-dived on Russian bridges over the Oder, destroying three of them. |
| 1959 A. C. Clarke Across Sea of Stars 204 Davis brought the jeep to its usual crash-halt in the parking space. |
| 1918 W. G. McMinnies Pract. Flying 228 Crash helmet, a specially-made flying helmet designed to save the pilot's head in case of a crash. 1923 Motor Cycle 20 Sept. p. xlvii (Advt.), 5,000 New Crash Helmets..ex-R.A.F. 1937 ‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier ii. 28 The wooden crash-helmets—a comparatively recent invention—are a godsend..and so strong that you can take a violent blow on the head without feeling it. 1959 Times 30 Sept. 12/6 Girls in crash-helmets and jeans. 1959 News Chron. 26 Sept. 3/3 A crash-helmeted youth wheeling his motor-bike down the path. 1969 Daily Tel. 31 Oct. 15/2 Zoot-suited spivs and crash-helmeted police. |
| 1941 P. Richey Fighter Pilot 27 We learnt that Killy had got his Hun after all: it had crash-landed near Macon. 1946 R. Lehmann Gipsy's Baby 156 The stage rocked madly on its trestles, John crash-landed beside her, bellowed in her ear. 1959 Listener 22 Jan. 163/1 A body moving in a Lunik-type path will not normally crash-land upon the Moon..unless it is given a fresh impulse at the critical moment. |
| 1928 Literary Digest 12 May 74/2 A ‘Chinese three-point landing’ is a crash landing. 1942 Time 23 Feb. 21/3 The pilot..glided in for a crash landing. |
| 1939 Collier's 24 June 55/1 In minor scrapes with death, pilots..shatter their goggles as their heads bang into crash pads—doughnuts of resilient material. 1959 Engineering 27 Feb. 265/2 Instrument clusters under foam-filled crash pads. 1968 Listener 31 Oct. 566/3 The hang-outs and crash pads..resound with the uncontrollable chattering of sour high-school drop-outs. 1970 Guardian 28 Oct. 13/1, I have..lived ‘underground’, slept in ‘crash pads’ and taken my food on charity. |
| 1947 Crowther & Whiddington Science at War 49 In these ‘crash’ programmes there was more difficulty in arranging to make the sets than the valves. 1957 Economist 21 Sept. 958/2 Once this crash programme of vaccination has been completed, the demand for vaccine will fall off sharply. 1958 Optima Mar. 51/2 This consultation en masse resembles a crash programme—it is calculated to solve a large-scale problem in the most effective manner in the shortest possible period of time. |
| 1959 Manch. Guardian 6 July 2/3 We went on as fast as before, and we were lucky to have only one crash-stop when we met a tractor. 1963 I. Fleming On H.M. Secret Service xvii. 193 A girl..came to a crash-stop in front of Bond. |
| 1960 Times 1 Feb. 15/1 As Jackson was crash-tackled he let fly from just inside the penalty area. 1960 Times 2 Nov. 17/4 Stowe crash-tackled with such fury Oundle could not go far. |
| 1954 J. B. G. Thomas On Tour 11, I have had the pleasure of playing first with Sale, alongside the crash-tackling Claude Davey. |
| 1943 Sci. News Let. 387 (caption) Crash Truck..ready to rush to the scene of a crash and shoot hundreds of gallons of water on a burning plane. |
| 1938 Time 5 Sept. 51 (Advt.), Known to the Navy as ‘Crash Wagons’, these three White trucks represent the last word in modern emergency equipment. 1958 ‘N. Shute’ Rainbow & Rose v. 215 At three hundred feet she was still spinning, and I shouted to the men to get the crash wagon. |
b. attrib., passing into adj. Undertaken with rapidity or intensive effort; organized for an emergency.
Cf. crash-dive and
crash programme above.
| 1952 Sun (Baltimore) 28 Feb. 1/1 The construction of the bases was undertaken as a ‘crash’ job, that is, a job to be done with all possible speed. 1954 Newsweek 30 Aug. 46/1 Crash teams of doctors, nurses, and physical therapists for all important diagnosis and initial treatment cannot be sent to critical areas in sufficient numbers. 1958 Economist 6 Dec. 866/1 The minister has already made what he thinks is adequate provision in the crash training college scheme announced last August. 1970 Observer 10 May 27/7 Don't go on a crash diet. You'll only put it back on again. |
▸
crash cart n. Med. colloq. (chiefly
N. Amer.) a trolley carrying the drugs and equipment used for emergency resuscitation in cases of cardiac arrest;
cf. crash v. Additions.
| 1964 Nevada State Jrnl. 25 June 4/4 Mobile units called ‘*crash carts’ are always on hand, completely equipped with every possible life-saving instrument. 2002 Good Housek. (Electronic ed.) Oct. When the line monitoring his heart went flat,..she heard the code-blue alarm sound and saw the crash cart fly past. |
▪ III. crash, n.2 (
kræʃ)
[Of uncertain origin: cf. Russ. krashenīna coloured linen.] 1. a. A coarse kind of linen, used for towels, etc.
| 1812 J. Smyth Pract. Customs 125 A coarse sort of narrow Russia Linen..commonly called Crash, and generally used as Towelling. 1867 F. H. Ludlow Little Bro. 79 There is crash upon the wide surface of the parlour floors! 1892 Daily News 3 Sept. 2/6 Coarse linens, such as canvas and crashes. |
b. attrib. Made of crash.
| 1875 I. L. Bird Sandwich Isl. (1880) 106 A basin, crash towels, a caraffe. 1887 Pall Mall G. 2 June 14/1 Strong white ‘crash’ bags. |
2. The name of a tint in textile fabrics, the colour of unbleached cotton.
| 1927 Daily Express 2 Apr. 6 In shades of Peach, Bracken, Sunburn, Caramel, Gold, Crash, White. 1927 Daily Mail 12 July 1 Colours:..Silver, Blush, Crash, etc. |