/ · 1894 Brewer’s · C · Crush
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To crush a bottle—i.e. drink one. Cf. Milton’s crush the sweet poison. The idea is that of crushing the grapes. Shakespeare has also burst a bottle in the same sense (Induction of Taming the Shrew). (See Crack.)
“Come and crush a cup of wine.”
Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet, i. 2.
To crush a fly on a wheel. To crack a nut with a steam-hammer; to employ power far too valuable for the purpose to be accomplished. The wheel referred to is the rack. (See Break a Butterfly.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.
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