English Dictionary
◊ CRASH
crash
adj : highly concentrated or intense; "a crash course" [syn: {crash(a)}]
n 1: a loud resonant repeating noise; "he could hear the clang of
distant bells" [syn: {clang}, {clangor}, {clangour}, {clangoring},
{clank}, {clash}, {jangle}]
2: a serious accident (usually involving one or more vehicles);
"they are still investigating the crash of the TWA plane"
[syn: {wreck}]
3: a sudden large decline of business or the prices of stocks
(especially one that causes additional failures) [syn: {collapse}]
4: the act of colliding with something [syn: {collision}, {smash}]
5: (computer science) an event that causes a computer system to
become inoperative; "the crash occurred during a
thunderstorm and the system has been down ever since"
v 1: fall or come down violently; "The branch crashed down on my
car"; "The plane crashed in the sea"
2: move with, or as if with, a crashing noise; "The car crashed
through the glass door"
3: undergo damage or destruction on impact; "the plane crashed
into the ocean"; "The car crashed into the lamp post"
[syn: {ram}]
4: move violently; as through a barrier
5: break violently or noisily; smash; [syn: {break up}, {break
apart}]
6: occupy, usually uninvited; "My son's friends crashed our
house last weekend"
7: enter uninvited; informal: "let's crash the party!" [syn: {barge
in}, {gate-crash}]
8: cause to crash; "The terorists crashed the car into the gate
of the palace"
9: hurl or thrust violently; "He dashed the plate against the
wall"; "Waves were dashing against the rock" [syn: {dash}]
10: stop operating; "My computer crashed last night"; "The
system goes down at least once a week" [syn: {go down}]
11: sleep in a convenient place; "You can crash here, though
it's not very comfortable" [syn: {doss}, {doss down}]
English Computing Dictionary
◊ CRASH
crash
1. A sudden, usually drastic failure. Most often said of the
{system}, especially of magnetic disk drives (the term
originally described what happened when the air gap of a hard
disk collapses). "Three {lusers} lost their files in last
night's disk crash." A disk crash that involves the
read/write heads dropping onto the surface of the disks and
scraping off the oxide may also be referred to as a "head
crash", whereas the term "system crash" usually, though not
always, implies that the operating system or other software
was at fault.
2. To fail suddenly. "Has the system just crashed?"
"Something crashed the OS!" See {down}. Also used
transitively to indicate the cause of the crash (usually a
person or a program, or both). "Those idiots playing
{SPACEWAR} crashed the system."
[{Jargon File}]
(1994-12-01)