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.
1923		Jelliffe & White Diseases of Nervous System (4 edn) 299: The girls [...] tend to be aggressive, domineering and often play the man role with their schoolmates, or ‘crushes’ [Simes:DLSS].
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.
1968		R. Lambert Hothouse Soc. 333: One tells us something of the physical and ‘innocent’ qualities desirable in a ‘crush’ [Simes:DLSS].
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.
1999		Observer Rev. 5 Sept. 16: That nice English teacher you’ve got a little bit of a crush on.
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. as sense 1, in homosexual contexts.

1917		q. in M.B. Duberman About Time (1986) 75: They [ie.e girls.] idealize their crushes so much, that they do not dare offer her things more useful, but the crush soon intimates to her what she would rather have and gets it [Simes:DLSS].
1929		K.B. Davis Sex Lives of 2200 Women 245: The deans and administrative officers of women’s colleges can testify to the serious problems due to the uncontrolled ‘crushes’ which arise from time to time [Simes:DLSS].
1949		G.S. Viereck All Things Human 133: In prison, Kent come to realize, these crushed are safety valves [Simes:DLSS].
1951		F. Peters Finistère 149: [They] had decided privately that he had a schoolboy crush on the man which, probably was all to the good [Simes:DLSS].
1968		q. in R. Lambert Hothouse Soc. 329: I will see my little friend who I have had a crush on for about a year or so [Simes:DLSS].
1994		A. Hollinghurst Folding Star 259: You are aware that virtually the entire school had a crush on you?’ [Simes:DLSS].
2003		Baker & Stanley Hello Sailor! 101: Seafarers nursed secret crushes, or were devastated when their current partner moved onto someone else.
2007		J. Sauers Sex Lives Austral. Teenagers 315: ‘I’m bisexual, and most of my fantasies involve my best friend who I have a major crush on’ [Simes:DLSS].
2008		Alex Great Cock Hunt 58: [I]n junior year I kind of had a crush on Tommy [Simes:DLSS].

3. (lesbian) the vagina.

1982

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