crash

   1.  n.  A  sudden,  usually  drastic  failure. Most often said of the
   {system}  (q.v.,  sense  1),  esp.  of magnetic disk drives (the term
   originally  described  what  happens  when the air gap of a hard disk
   collapses).  "Three  {luser}s  lost  their files in last night's disk
   crash." A disk crash that involves the read/write heads dropping onto
   the  surface  of  the  disks  and  scraping off the oxide may also be
   referred  to  as a head crash, whereas the term system crash usually,
   though  not  always,  implies  that  the  operating  system  or other
   software was at fault.

   2.  v.  To  fail  suddenly. "Has the system just crashed?" "Something
   crashed  the  OS!" See {down}. Also used transitively to indicate the
   cause  of  the crash (usually a person or a program, or both). "Those
   idiots playing {SPACEWAR} crashed the system."

   3.  vi.  Sometimes  said  of  people  hitting  the  sack after a long
   {hacking run}; see {gronk out}.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {ABEND}{bomb}{dead}{die}{down}{fall over}{hung}{off the trolley}{overclock}{smoke}{well-behaved}{workaround}]