A verb meaning to crush, break in pieces, or gnaw. It conveys the grinding destruction of something solid — bones being crushed, millstones grinding, oppressors crushing the weak. The imagery is physical but carries emotional and theological weight in lament literature, describing the extremity of suffering.
Lamentations 3 employs this word as Jeremiah describes his devastation in graphic physical terms — God has ground his teeth on gravel, crushed him with affliction. This shockingly visceral language is not blasphemy but honest prayer. The Bible authorizes raw expression of anguish in the presence of God. Yet crucially, the same chapter pivots to the famous declaration of God's mercies being new every morning — meaning that crushing lamentation and steadfast hope can coexist in authentic faith. The crushing does not have the last word.