Crunch vs Shrink - What's the difference?

As verbs the difference between crunch and shrink

is that crunch is to crush something, especially food, with a noisy crackling sound while shrink is to cause to become smaller.

As nouns the difference between crunch and shrink

is that crunch is a noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching while shrink is shrinkage; contraction; recoil.

crunch

English

Verb

(es)

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

* (Lord Byron) (1788-1824)

Their white tusks crunched o'er the whiter skull.

To be crushed with a noisy crackling sound.

(label) To calculate or otherwise process (e.g. to crunch numbers : to perform mathematical calculations).

To grind or press with violence and noise.

* Kane

The ship crunched through the ice.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers)

, chapter=5, title= A Cuckoo in the Nest , passage=The departure was not unduly prolonged.

To emit a grinding or crunching noise.

* 1849 , (Henry James), ''

There were sounds in the air above his head – sounds of the crunching and rattling of the loose, smooth stones as his neighbors moved about

To compress (data) using a particular algorithm, so that it can be restored by decrunching.

* 1993 , "Michael Barsoom", [comp.sys.amiga.announce] PackIt Announcement'' (on newsgroup ''comp.archives )

PackIt will not crunch executables, unless told to do so.

Noun

(es)

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

A critical moment or event.

* 1985 , John C. L. Gibson, Job (page 237)

The friends, on the contrary, argue that Job does not "know", that only God knows; yet, when it comes to the crunch , they themselves seem to know as much as God knows: for example, that Job is a guilty sinner.

(exercise) A form of abdominal exercise, based on a sit-up but in which the lower back remains in contact with the floor.

Derived terms

* credit crunch * crunch time * reverse crunch

Coordinate terms

* (abdominal exercise) sit-up, trunk curl

shrink

English

Verb

To cause to become smaller.

The dryer shrank my sweater.

To become smaller; to contract.

This garment will shrink when wet.

* Francis Bacon

I have not found that water, by mixture of ashes, will shrink or draw into less room.

* Dryden

And shrink like parchment in consuming fire.

To cower or flinch.

Molly shrank away from the blows of the whip.

To draw back; to withdraw.

* Milton

The Libya Hammon shrinks his horn.

(figuratively) To withdraw or retire, as from danger.

* Alexander Pope

What happier natures shrink at with affright, / The hard inhabitant contends is right.

* Jowett (Thucyd.)

They assisted us against the Thebans when you shrank from the task.

Synonyms

* (avoid an unwanted task) funk, shirk

Antonyms

* (to cause to become smaller) expand, grow, enlarge, stretch * (become smaller) expand, grow, enlarge, stretch

Noun

(en noun)

shrinkage; contraction; recoil

Yet almost wish, with sudden shrink , / That I had less to praise. — Leigh Hunt.

(slang, sometimes, pejorative) A psychiatrist or therapist; a head-shrinker.

You need to see a shrink .

My shrink said that he was an enabler, bad for me.

* 1994 , (Green Day),

I went to a shrink , to analyze my dreams. He said it's lack of sex that's bringing my down.''

Usage notes

* The slang sense was originally pejorative, expressing a distrust of practitioners in the field. It is now not as belittling or trivializing.

Synonyms

* head-shrinker