"crushing" in the noun sense
1. suppression, crushing, quelling, stifling
forceful prevention putting down by power or authority
"the suppression of heresy"
"the quelling of the rebellion"
"the stifling of all dissent"
"crushing" in the verb sense
1. oppress, suppress, crush
come down on or keep down by unjust use of one's authority
"The government oppresses political activists"
2. squash, crush, squelch, mash, squeeze
to compress with violence, out of natural shape or condition
"crush an aluminum can"
"squeeze a lemon"
3. beat, beat out, crush, shell, trounce, vanquish
come out better in a competition, race, or conflict
"Agassi beat Becker in the tennis championship"
"We beat the competition"
"Harvard defeated Yale in the last football game"
4. crush
break into small pieces
"The car crushed the toy"
5. crush, smash
humiliate or depress completely
"She was crushed by his refusal of her invitation"
"The death of her son smashed her"
6. jam, crush
crush or bruise
"jam a toe"
7. break down, crush
make ineffective
"Martin Luther King tried to break down racial discrimination"
8. crush
become injured, broken, or distorted by pressure
"The plastic bottle crushed against the wall"
"crushing" in the adjective sense
1. crushing, devastating
physically or spiritually devastating often used in combination
"a crushing blow"
"a crushing rejection"
"bone-crushing"
Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)
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