English

Alternative forms

• crash-dive

Noun

crash dive ‎(plural crash dives)

1. (idiomatic, military) An emergency maneuver by a submarine in which it suddenly descends, especially to considerable depth, usually in order to escape an attack or to avoid a collision.
   • 2000 March 19, Charles M. Cooke, "Letters: Loose Lips, Sinking Ships," Washington Post (retrieved 25 Oct 2015):

     As the crash dive began at 1:50 p.m., the overboard ventilation valve had not been closed, which resulted in tons of water flooding the submarine.

2. A rapid descent by a person or thing ending in a violent collision.
   • 1985 Oct. 4, Mel Gussow, "Theater: Three by Sam Shepard," New York Times (retrieved 25 Oct 2015):

     In "Icarus's Mother," a skywriter salutes two girls on a beach with the message, "E=MC²," and then swirls into a deadly crash dive.

Verb

crash dive ‎(third-person singular simple present crash dives, present participle crashing diving, simple past crash dived or crash dove, past participle crash dived)

1. (intransitive, idiomatic, often hyphenated, submarine operation) To perform a crash dive.
   • 2012 Oct. 14, Lorna Inness, "Death on the Caribou," ChronicleHerald (Halifax, Canada) (retrieved 25 Oct 2015):

     Cuthburt turned the Grandmere in time to see the U-69 within yards of his ship. Graf wasted no time in taking evasive action, crash diving and turning, barely escaping the Grandmere’s efforts to ram him.

2. (transitive, idiomatic, often hyphenated, submarine operation) To cause (a submarine) to perform a crash dive.
   • 2014, Philip Kaplan, Grey Wolves: The U-Boat War, ISBN 9781629140766, "Sit There and Take It" (Google online preview):

     Siegmann was still obliged to crash-dive the sub three more times to escape twelve more bombs.

3. (intransitive, often hyphenated) To rapidly descend, intentionally or accidentally, in a manner that ends in a violent collision.
   • 2008, James Richard Snellen, South Pacific at Seventeen, ISBN 9781425137632, p. 48 (Google preview):

     At 0640 hours, a Japanese suicide plane crash-dove into the USS Gilligan.

4. (transitive, often hyphenated) To rapidly descend, in a manner that ends in a violent collision with (something).
   • 1945 July 30, John Hersey, "Kamikaze," Life, vol. 19, no. 5, p. 70 (retrieved 28 Oct 2015):

     Twenty-two Jap suicide planes sighted destroyer off Okinawa April 16 and for more than two hours bombed and crash-dived the ship in a wild and apparently unorganized attack.

5. (transitive, often hyphenated) To cause (something) to descend rapidly, in a manner that ends in a violent collision.
   • 1945 April 23, "World Battlefronts: Divine Tempests," Time (retrieved 25 Oct 2015):

     [T]he Japanese have organized a suicide corps of flyers whose mission is to crash-dive their explosives-laden aircraft into ships.