Fromcrush +-er(agent noun suffix), or, for one who elicits a crush, +-er(patient suffix).
crusher (pluralcrushers)
- Someone or something thatcrushes.
1878, Samuel Butler,Life and Habit, London: Trübner & Co., page 1:[…] for unless a matter be true enough to stand a good deal of misrepresentation, its truth is not of a very robust order, and the blame will rather lie with its own delicacy than with the carelessness of thecrusher.
1955 [609–632], “The Backbiter”, inArthur J. Arberry, transl.,The Koran Interpreted,→ISBN,page664:Woe unto every backbiter, slanderer, who has gathered riches and counted them over thinking his riches have made him immortal! ¶ No indeed, he shall be thrust into theCrusher, and what shall teach thee what is theCrusher?
- A machine designed to crushrocks.
- Coordinate terms:breaker,dresser
- (slang, dated) Apoliceman.
1851,Henry Mayhew, “The Literature of Costermongers”, inLondon Labour and the London Poor[1], volume 1, page25:Anything about the police sets them a talking at once.[…] 'The blessedcrushers are everywhere,' shouted one. 'I wish I'd been there to have had a shy at the eslops,' said another. And then a man sung out: 'O, don't I like the Bobbys?'
1977,John Le Carré,The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published2010, page110:Back in the lobby he bought a copy ofTime but didn't like the way the plain-clothescrushers looked at him, and left.
- (slang, obsolete) Something overwhelming.
someone or something that crushes
a machine designed to crush rocks
Borrowed fromEnglishcrusher.
crusher m (pluralcrushers,diminutivecrushertje n)
- crusher(machine designed to crush rocks)
