Crusher

How to spell crusher

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce crusher

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does crusher mean?

1. nounA machine or tool that compresses or grinds material into smaller pieces.
2. nounA person who crushes something, often used informally or in occupational descriptions.

Crusher in a sentence

• The quarry installed a new rock crusher to break the boulders.

• The old vineyard employed a grape crusher during the harvest.

• She dropped the empty can into the wall-mounted crusher.

• He worked as a stone crusher on the road crew for years.

Where does crusher come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built on the verb 'crush', which English took from Old French in the 1300s. The Old French form was 'croissir' or 'cruisir', meaning 'to gnash, smash, or break to pieces', and it probably reached French from a Germanic source related to grinding and crackling sounds. Once 'crush' was settled in English, speakers added the ordinary agent suffix '-er', the same ending seen in 'baker' and 'printer', to name a person or machine that does the crushing. As an industrial term it has been common since the rise of mining and quarrying machinery in the 1800s, when ore and rock were fed into mechanical crushers. The spelling is regular and phonetic, so the only mild trap is remembering the single medial 's' rather than doubling it.

How the word is built

• crush (to press and break)
• -er (agent suffix: one that does)