Etymology From crunch + -y. The slang sense is derived from the concept of crunchy granola.
1
Likely to crunch, especially with reference to food when it is eaten.
I put some lettuce in the burger to make it more crunchy.
Inspector: Well, don't you even take the bones out? Mr. Hilton: If we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?1969 November 23, “Crunchy Frog”, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, season 1, episode 6:
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The importance of Nowruz is reflected in an elaborate sabzi polo, the herbed rice capped with a crunchy tahdig, the crust formed from lettuce, rice mixed with yogurt or lavash or another thin flatbread. On Wednesday night, I opted for sheveed polo, a simpler and quicker dill rice, but I can’t wait to nail that crunchy tahdig tonight.2026 March 15, Genevieve Ko, “‘This Is the Best Dish I Have Ever Made From NYT Cooking’”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Mar 2026:
2
Figuratively, Slang Having counter-culture sensibilities; nature-loving or hippie; wholesome, health-conscious.
San Francisco was a very crunchy town.
Silky mama won't typically go for cloth diapers like crunchy mama.
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Weiner says being in Oakland “allows you to encounter different ideas” in terms of style “like crunchy, old people in the organic produce section of the grocery store, wearing very Bay Area specific outfits”.2022 November 10, Lauren Cochrane, quoting Jonah Weiner, “‘Cool kids want to dress like old crunchy people’: the fashion newsletter where wholesome is hip”, in The Guardian, →ISSN, archived from the original on 15 Feb 2023:
The pipeline is real; individual people are indeed being recruited into the militant right. Some of them make this journey through “crunchy” online spaces into white-power content, as the sociologist Cynthia Miller-Idriss has documented in Hate in the Homeland.2022 December 14, Kathleen Belew, “The Crunchy-to-Alt-Right Pipeline”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 05 Nov 2023:
Ms. Noe, a self-described “crunchy teen,” is just one of a number of young influencers who appeal to other health-conscious kids their age.2025 May 5, Rina Raphael, “Some Teen Wellness Influencers Embrace Kennedy-Style Skepticism”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 06 May 2025:
Informal Of an image, pixelated, grainy, or exhibiting blocking, often as a result of oversharpening, a low resolution, or aggressively applied lossy image compression.
This can result in the image looking very crunchy as pixels are skipped - especially if you choose the "Fit" option in the Magnification popup. Don't panic; your final image won't look that bad[…]2007, Trish Meyer, Chris Meyer, After Effects Apprentice: Real-world Skills for the Aspiring Motion Graphics Artist, Taylor & Francis, →ISBN:
[…] pixels that look hideous on screen to a printing device. But if the pixels don't look seriously crunchy on the display, you're almost certainly undersharpening your images. The only reliable way to evaluate print sharpening is to[…]2009 September 25, Bruce Fraser, Jeff Schewe, Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom, Peachpit Press, →ISBN:
5
Games, GamingSlang Of a game, having significant calculation (number-crunching), complex analysis, or strategic optimization for players to think about.
"Inside, tankers carry full-length M16s for crew protection from crunchies."2009, James Wesley Rawles, Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse:
Since tankers are no brighter than infantry types, those men assigned to the Twelfth Infantry Division's armored unit thought their tour was a bitter waste, rather than being grateful for not getting wiped out nearly as regularly as the crunchies did.2009, Chris Bunch, Allan cole, A Reckoning For Kings: A Novel of Vietnam: