Present participle of crump; the ongoing action of crunching or making explosive sounds.
From 'crump' (onomatopoetic verb) with the present participle suffix '-ing,' commonly used in military contexts to describe continuous artillery bombardment.
During WWI, soldiers would write home about 'the crumping' as if it were an almost sentient force—it shows how powerful onomatopoeia is at capturing sensory experience in a single word.
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