Word Confusion: Collide versus Crash

Gerund: colliding

Third person present verb: collides
Past tense or past participle: collided
Present participle: colliding

Plural for the noun: crashes
Gerund: crashing

Third person present verb: crashes
Past tense or past participle: crashed
Present participle: crashing

• Crash

To conflict in attitude, opinion, opposition, or desire

To clash

Disagree

Verb, transitive:
To cause to hit with force when moving

Adverb:
With a sudden loud sound ¹

Noun
Fall from the sky and violently hit the land or sea ¹

A violent collision, typically of one vehicle — automobiles, trains, etc. — with another or with an obstacle

• [Aeronautics] An instance of an aircraft falling from the sky to hit the land or sea

A sudden loud noise as of something breaking or hitting another object

A sudden disastrous drop in the value or price of something, especially shares of stock

• The sudden and/or violent collapse of a business enterprise, prosperity, the stock market, etc.
• A sudden failure which puts a system out of action

The shock of collision and breaking

[Ecology] A sudden, rapid decline in the size of a population

[With modifier] Requiring or using intensive effort and all possible resources in order to accomplish something quickly

[With modifier] Sudden or vigorous

[Informal; with modifier] A complete failure

[Dated] A coarse plain linen, woolen, or cotton fabric, used for curtains, upholstery, towels, and clothing ²

[Bookbinding] Starched cotton fabric used to reinforce the spine of a bound book

Verb, intransitive:
[Of a vehicle] Collide violently with an obstacle or another vehicle ¹

• [Of an aircraft] Fall from the sky and violently hit the land or sea

Move or cause to move with force, speed, and sudden loud noise

[Informal; of a business, a market, or a price] Fall suddenly and disastrously in value

[Of a machine, system, or software] Fail suddenly

• [Mainly North American; of a patient] Suffer a cardiac arrest

[Informal] Go to sleep, especially suddenly or in an improvised setting

Verb, transitive:
Cause (a moving object) to collide with an obstacle or another vehicle ¹

Cause (an aircraft) to fall from the sky and land violently

Move or cause to move with force, speed, and sudden loud noise

[Informal] Enter (a party) without an invitation or permission

[British; informal] Short for gate-crash

[Informal] To fail

• Be unsuccessful

Two suburban trains collided.

In his work, politics and metaphysics collide.

It was a case of colliding cultures.

Science and religion collided in the court.

Verb, transitive:
Drivers were colliding their cars in a demolition derby.

“The present generation of particle accelerators can collide particles at energies of about one hundred GeV, and machines are planned that would raise this to a few thousand GeV” (Hawking).

She took a crash course on income-tax preparation.

They both went on a crash diet.

Adverb:
Crash went the bolt.

He went crash into a tree.

“The sudden, quick crash of a fox bounding through the brush was as loud as the slam of a great wooden door” (Lo).

Noun:
We heard the car crash.

Luckily, the pilot survived the crash of his plane.

He slammed the phone down with a crash.

Do you remember the crash of 1987.

The stock market crash in October 1929 destroyed many.

The crash of the company meant that 150 jobs would go.

System crashes are an everyday hazard.

The crash occurred during a thunderstorm and the system has been down ever since.

“This time he jumped from the chair and scrambled as far from the bed as possible, knocking over the lamp on the table; it landed with the crash of broken glass” (Dashner).

“The Kuwae eruption (1453 C.E.) matches with the major population crash detected in Rapa Nui” (Lima).

She had to undergo a crash program.

“There was a crash all around of splitting glass, a further shock” (Oppenheim).

It was a rough game with plenty of crash tackles.

New products often do a crash-and-burn.

“Russian crash was popular for its artistic (uneven) appearance and extraordinarily absorbent properties” (Crash).

Commonly referred to as mull, crash, and tarlatan, this open weave cotton cheesecloth has a stiffened starch sizing and is commonly used for lining spines in bookbinding and connecting cover boards (Super).

Verb, intransitive:
The stolen car she was riding in crashed into a tree.

A jet crashed 200 yards from the school.

Huge waves crashed down on us.

The thunder crashed.

Silver prices crashed in early 1980.

The project was postponed because the computer crashed.

Foods with a low glycemic index, such as oats, won’t cause your energy level to spike and crash.

He’s crashing! Get the crash cart.

I’ll crash in the back of the van for a couple of hours.

Verb, transitive:
He crashed the truck into the signpost.

The test pilot crashed a Hurricane fighter plane.

She crashed down the telephone receiver.

He crashed the party.

My son’s friends crashed our house last weekend.

It’s his third business he’s crashed and burned.

1. Late Middle English, imitative, perhaps partly suggested by craze and dash.
2. First recorded in 1805–15 from the Russian krashenína meaning painted or dyed coarse linen equivalent to kráshenyĭ meaning painted, a past participle of krásit (to paint) + -ina (noun suffix).