crushing

What it means

1. That crushes; overwhelming.

   a crushing defeat

   3 more examples

   The fruits of these kickstarted endeavors began to show in 1915, first in the deployment of a new range of depth charges. These were, mercifully, smaller than Jellicoe's "crushing hand of God" prototype, and, whilst practically just as lethal to submarines, they were significantly less risky to the launching ship, and could also be carried in larger numbers.

   2019 July 24, Drachinifel, 11:06 from the start, in Anti-Sub Warfare in WW1 - From Hammers to Hunter-Killers, archived from the original on 24 Nov 2022

   The TSSA union stated that he had been carrying out maintenance and died as a result of crushing injuries.

   2020 December 16, Paul Clifton, “Investigation begins after death at Eastleigh depot”, in Rail, page 12

   During the previous administration, crushing environmental regulatory burdens caused the average cost of vehicles to soar.

   2026 June 29, Donald J. Trump, “Lowering the Cost of Living by Promoting the Freedom to Fix”, in The White House, archived from the original on 29 Jun 2026

2. Devastatingly disheartening.

   crushing blow

   2 more examples

   crushing guilt

   Oh, your dog has leukemia? That’s crushing.

In a sentence

a crushing defeat

Where it comes from

By surface analysis, crush + -ing.