| 释义 |
▪ I. craunch, cranch, v.|krɑːnʃ, krɔːnʃ|
[Cranch appears after 1600; in early use it varied with scranch, still given by Johnson, 1755, as retained by the Scots, and now dialectal. As in other words where initial cr- and scr- interchange (cf. crab, scrab, crap, scrap, cratch, scratch), it is doubtful which of these is the original. The priority of scranch is favoured by its nearness in form and sense to some Du. and LG. words. Cf. 16th c. Du., in Plantijn 1573, schranzen to split, break, evidently related to MHG. schranz breach, split, crack, rent; in Kilian 1599 schranzen to break, tear, crush, bruise; also to chew, crush with the teeth, to comminute or grind (the food) with the teeth; mod.Du. schransen to eat voraciously, WFlem. schranzen to gnash, eat with gnashing of the teeth, to craunch; also EFris. schrantsen, schranssen, to tear or snatch to oneself, to eat greedily.
On the other hand, earlier examples are at present known of cranch, and this may, as in the parallel pair crunch, scrunch, be really the earlier form. Cranch might be an onomatopœic modification of crash, which was used in the very same sense from 16th to 18th c.: see quot. 1730 from Bailey's Folio. That association with crash, crush, has affected the word, is evidenced by the later form crunch. The original pronunciation was as in branch; the occasional pronunciation as in paunch is due to the spelling with au (chiefly since Johnson), with the obsolescence of the word in living use: cf. Thoreau's spelling cronch.]
1. trans. = crunch v. 1, 2.
1631Massinger Emp. East iv. ii, We prune the orchards, and you cranch the fruit. [1658Rowland tr. Mouffet's Theat. Ins. 983 They [locusts] easily eat ears of corn and scranch them with a great noise. ]1726Swift Gulliver, Brobdingnag iii, The Queen..would craunch the Wing of a Lark, Bones and all, between her Teeth. 1730–36Bailey (Folio), Cranch (scranch or crunch) between the Teeth, v. Crash. [Crash, to break with the Teeth with a Noise, as in eating green Fruit]. 1760Life & Adv. Cat 28 A leg of which he was cranching. 1827Montgomery Pelican Isl. iii. 185 The crocodile, the dragon of the waters..cranch'd his prey. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xxix. (1856) 249 The separated sides would come together with an explosion like a mortar, craunching the newly-formed field. 1864Kingsley Rom. & Teut. p. lii, Of a thousand acorns..but one shall..grow into a builder oak, the rest be craunched up by the nearest swine.
2. intr. and absol. = crunch v. 1 b, 3.
1637Heywood Royall King ii. Wks. 1874 VI. 30 Here doe I meane to cranch, to munch, to eate. c1790J. Imison Sch. Art II 158 If you find it..cranch between your teeth. 1857Mrs. Gaskell C. Brontë 70 You encounter strings of mill-hands..cranching in hungry haste over the cinder-paths. 1861Sala Dutch Pict. iii. 32 The wild beasts can't be always howling, and yelling, and craunching.
Hence ˈcraunching vbl. n. and ppl. a.
1836Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) IV. 139 Like the cranching of a stone in plum-cake. 1855Mrs. Gaskell North & S. vi, A stealthy, creeping, cranching sound among the crisp fallen leaves. 1861Holland Less. Life ix. 131 As a dog would..bury it [a bone], only resorting to it in the dark, for private craunching.
▪ II. craunch, cranch, n.
[f. prec. vb.]
1. An act, or the action, of craunching; = crunch n. 1.
1806–7J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) ix. l, Mumping your way through a..very sour apple, though you are soon reduced to your fore-teeth (grinders hors de combat at the first craunch). 1828Blackw. Mag. XXIV. 872 The all-destroying cranch of Mr. Murray's Review.
2. That which is or may be craunched; e.g. apples or the like. colloq.
Mod. The children like the garden, there is plenty of craunch there.
3. An accumulation of gravel, sand, grit, etc., at the mouth of a harbour. local.
1840Evid. Hull Docks Com. 8 There is what we call a cranch at the entrance of the harbour; the mud and sand accumulated there.
4. (cranch.) Mining. A portion of a stratum or vein left in excavating to support the roof.
1747Hooson Miner's Dict. F j b, Cranches are left though good Ore be in them..for a small Piece of wholes will hold up a greater weight than any Timber we can set to it. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Cranch, part of a vein left by old workers. |