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Crunch vs Nibble - What's the difference?

crunch | nibble |

As verbs the difference between crunch and nibble

is that crunch is to crush something, especially food, with a noisy crackling sound while nibble is to eat with small, quick bites.

As nouns the difference between crunch and nibble

is that crunch is a noisy crackling sound; the sound usually associated with crunching while nibble is a small, quick bite taken with the front teeth.

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

    nibble

    English

    Etymology 1

    Perhaps from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small, quick bite taken with the front teeth.
  • (in the plural, nibbles) Small snacks such as crisps/potato chips or nuts, often eaten to accompany drinks.
    • Derived terms
    * nibbly

    Verb

    (nibbl)
  • To eat with small, quick bites.
    • The rabbit nibbled the lettuce.
  • * 2 November 2014 , Alex James in (The Guardian), The day I came face-to-face with a tiger
  • *:Giant parrots nibbled seed from the children's fingertips and my sister peeled a couple of satsumas for the lemurs.
  • * 1911 , (Rudyard Kipling), Big Steamers
  • *:"For the bread that you eat and the biscuits you nibble ,
  • *:The sweets that you suck and the joints that you carve,
  • *:They are brought to you daily by all us Big Steamers--
  • *:And if anyone hinders our coming you'll starve!"
  • To bite lightly.
    • He nibbled at my neck and made me shiver.
  • To consume gradually.
  • * 11 May 2011 , Ann Carrns in The (New York Times), Prepaid Cards Subject Jobless to Host of Fees
  • *:A report out this week from the National Consumer Law Center lays out a host of ways in which banks nibble away at jobless benefits with fees the center called “junk.”

    • Etymology 2

    From nibble', punning on the homophony of '''byte''' and ' bite

    Alternative forms

    * nybble

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (computing) A unit of memory equal to half a byte, or four bits.http://foldoc.org/nibble
  • * 1993 , Richard E. Haskell, Introduction to computer engineering (page 287)
    • That is, the lower nibble (the 4 bits 1010 = A) has been masked to zero.

    References