Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a romantic or sexual interest in someone, occas. the person itself [one’s emotions ‘crush’ their object].

1884		I.M. Rittenhouse Maud (1939) 338: Wintie is weeping because her crush is gone.
1897		Sun (N.Y.) 11 Apr. n.p.: A distinctly woman’s collegiate word is ‘crush.’ expressing a relationship between two girls hard to define. One girl, generally an underclassman, and usually a freshman, becomes much attached to another girl, ordinarily an upper-class girl.
1913		J. London Valley of the Moon (1914) I 17: ‘Watch out for him, Saxon,’ Mary warned facetiously. ‘He’s liable to get a crush on you.’.
1920		F.S. Fitzgerald This Side of Paradise in Bodley Head Scott Fitzgerald III (1960) 22: You got a crush on Froggy Parker. I guess everybody knows that.
1930		(con. 1900s–10s) Dos Passos 42nd Parallel in USA (1966) 70: I’ll be meeting all the girls I had crushes on.
1930		E. Glyn Flirt and Flapper 53: Flirt: What is a heavy? Flapper: He’s the boy you’ve got a temporary crush on.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 140: I think he got a crush on Girlie.
1957		G. Metalious Peyton Place (1959) 223: One fourteen-year-old who developed a crush on me.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 87: ‘I suppose it’s the mischief in Eddie that gives Joey such a crush on him’.
1967		J. Rechy Numbers (1968) 204: Hustling, Johnny would have spotted the man [...] as an easy mark — the kind who gets an instant crush.
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 268: Shame on you. I think you got a crush on him.
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 22: Many of the boys would have crushes on other boys as friends, but mine was the whole thing.
1997		G. Sikes 8 Ball Chicks (1998) 33: She admitted she once had a crush on a boy in her gang.
2003		G. Tate Midnight Lightning 59: ‘Hendrix,’ she gushes, ‘was my first crush.’.
2005		Jade LB Keisha the Sket (2021) 35: he alwayz had a bit of a crush on me.
2010		NY Rev. Books 9-22 Dec. 12/2: He was watching a girl he had a crush on.
2023		J. Jackson Pineapple Street 20: Georgiana had [. . .] an enormous, goofy, childlike, and mortifying crush. His name was Brady .

2. (lesbian) the vagina.

1982

Maledicta VI:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 131: Vagina [...] Crack, cunt, crush, quiff, quim.