Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Aus.) to sleep, to collapse exhausted.

1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 162: Crash. To sleep.
1966		H.S. Thompson Hell’s Angels (1967) 205: Crashing means nothing more sinister than going on the nod, either from booze or simple fatigue.
1977		C. McFadden Serial 15: One hundred and fifty bucks if you crash in the dorm.
1985		R.G. Barrett You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 71: He fell on the sheets and crashed out.
1989		J. Doyle College Sl. Dict. 🌐 crash [U. of Kansas] to sleep.
1996		P. Howard The Joy (2015) [ebook] I crashed in this shop doorway up at Charing Cross.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 56: You can crash here tonight.
1998		G. Burn Happy Like Murderers 49: There were mattresses on the floor of the room [...] where people could ‘crash’.
1999		Observer 4 July 26: I arrived at a beautiful Italian villa, crashed out by the swimming pool and began to try to forget about [...] the stress I’d left behind in London.
1999		R.G. Barrett Wind & Monkey (2013) [ebook] ‘If you want to crash out [...] I’ll doss in the other room’.
2000		T. Blacker Kill Your Darlings 86: I crashed out – power nap, you know.
2010		K. Richards Life 305: I would crash out, if I crashed out at all, around ten in the morning, get up around four in the afternoon.
2010		L. Berney Gutshot Straight [ebook] She crashed out and slept till early afternoon.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I wondered if he’d quit drinking and crashed out early.
2012		J. Fagan Panopticon (2013) 31: The night nurse’ll be in her tower — everyone else’ll have crashed.
2014		S.A. Cosby ‘The Rat & the Cobra’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] The following Friday found me crashed out on the couch.
2016		A. Wheatle Crongton Knights 207: ‘He even let me sleep in his bed while he crashed on the couch’.
2018		I. Welsh Dead Man’s Trousers [35: — It must have been a tiring flight! — No, ah’m best keeping gaun till I crash.
2024		D. Swierczynski California Bear 14: I thought that’s where I’d be crashing until Matilda was back home.

2. to stay, to lodge, to board; thus crash at, to stay at; crash with, to stay with.

1968		N. von Hoffman We are the People Our Parents Warned Us Against 275: I don’t have a place to crash.
1970		Time 30 Mar. 10: A transient arrives looking for a place to crash.
1981		A.K. Shulman On the Stroll 226: I don’t have any place to stay and I wondered [...] if I could crash with you for a little while.
1999		Indep. Mag. 30 Oct. 37: There was a constant procession of people wandering through the flat, or staying for a few days at a time – crashing, as we used to call it.
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 10 Oct. 67: He crashed at my apartment for a while.
2006		C. Hiaasen Nature Girl 68: Would you mind crashing at your ex-father’s place for a few days?
2012		R.A. Dickey Wherever I Wind Up 61: Often I crash with friends who live right in Green Hills [...] but I feel funny asking them if I can stay over again.
2021		S.A. Crosby Razorblade Tears 82: The brunette [...] had been crashing at the clubhouse.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 238: Whose couch would I be crashing on?

3. (drugs) to collapse, esp. after a bout of heavy drug (esp. amphetamine), or alcohol use; thus crashed (out) adj.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 101: Crashed Drunk and passed out.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 71: crash (1) finally to fall asleep after being in a high state of stimulation from a drug, especially of the amphetamine type.
1971		J. Mandelkau Buttons 71: I’d get stoned on reds some nights and just crash out.
1986		F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 182: But it is my business if you want somewhere [...] for your bloody mates to crash out!
1991		D. Jarman letter 19 July Smiling in Slow Motion (2000) 38: Drunks are crashed out on the black leather chairs in the entrance.
2002		J. Ridley Conversation with the Mann 31: Pop wasn’t crashing, he was crying.
2013		F. Bill Donnybrook [ebook] [Y]ammering that he and Beatle had crashed hard after too many days of tweaking.

4. (drugs) to lose the sensation that follows the use of a given drug, esp. if this happens unusually quickly [i.e. intensified version of come down v.³ (1)].

1967		N.Y. Times Mag. 29 Oct. 27: At the end of the Methedrine jag, when she crashes, she will know.
1969		R.R. Lingeman Drugs from A to Z (1970) 71: crash [...] to return abruptly to normal from a state of drug intoxication, either due to a willed effort in order to appear ‘straight’ or because of a shock, such as the appearance of a policeman.
1981		D.E. Miller Bk of Jargon 340: crash: To come down from a long speed or acid (LSD) jaunt and suddenly experience the exhaustion and other physical effects that the drug had masked; to fall deeply asleep after coming down.
1992		S.L. Hills Tragic Magic 16: You really speed when you go up [...] but then you crash and crash heavy.
1993		T. Jones Pugilist at Rest 28: We were, to the man, hung-down, drug-down and crashing hard after five days of in-country R&R.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 47: All that trouble back there, it made me crash.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 48/1: crash 3 to experience feelings of depression or general emotional enervation after a drug ‘high’ has ended .

5. to slip into a state of semi-conscious relaxation after taking a drug.

1999		(con. 1979–80) A. Wheatle Brixton Rock (2004) 23: Can’t you see I’m crashing? [...] Rest your lip, man, and listen to the music.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 48/1: crash2 to go on the nod (under the influence of intravenous drugs), esp. to overdose .

6. (UK black) to sit down.

2001

(con. 1981) A. Wheatle East of Acre Lane 75: Coffin Head and Biscuit crashed on a bean bag each.

7. to break down emotionally; of an addict, to need more of one’s drug.

1993		E. Richards Cocaine True 8: He was crashing, his nerves were in ashes [...] He couldn’t borrow money for even half a cap.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 439: A could see er startin ta crash, sittin there starin aht owva that mountains, a could see blackness descendin on er.
2012		N. Pettigrew ‘Wakey Wake’ in ThugLit Dec. [ebook] [A]t the sight of his father’s body inside the chapel, he crashed.