graunchv.

1881 S. Evans Evans's Leicestershire Words (new ed.) 163 Graunch, var. of ‘crunch’ and ‘scrunch’, to crush or grind with a noise; crash. ‘I'm sure it freezes, for I heard the ice graunching under the wheels of the carriage.’

1954 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) 1 July As far as I know ‘to graunch’ means to damage an engine, instrument, machine, etc., by using wrong tools and/or repair methods, and a ‘graunch-artist’ is ‘a person who does that’.

1954 Dominion (Wellington, N.Z.) 9 July The first time I heard the word [graunch] was some time in '39 or '40, and it was used by an English airman. To the best of my knowledge it originated in the R.A.F. and was pronounced ‘garraunch’ to reproduce the sound of a plane as it crashed and slid... Later it became a one-syllable word and refers to any metal torn or damaged by force.

1957 Evening Post (Wellington, N.Z.) 17 Apr. 8 (headline) Graunch!—Bang goes more than the door.

1964 Observer 11 Oct. (Colour Suppl.) 42/1 Many people ‘graunch’ their gears.

1968 Dominion Sunday Times (Wellington, N.Z.) 10 Apr. 2/3 They said they could hear the ship ‘graunching’ on the rock.

1959 D. Beaty Cone of Silence xxviii. 288 ‘Have you tried this new take-off technique?’ ‘Yes sir..we're in for a hell of a graunching.’

1965 N.Z. Listener 27 Aug. 9/1 John Pascoe himself knew that editing an encyclopaedia would be a lengthy project. ‘When I started I knew it was a graunchy job. But then I've always liked long graunchy jobs. It's tied in with my youthful experiences of long distance running... I rather like long, slow patient plodding.’