crunch¹ time经常用在比赛中，假如比赛只剩5分钟了，两个球队比分相差无几，这时，就可以称作crunch time，中文可以翻译为关键时刻。

例句：

It is crunch time for Lakers, one more score will secure the victory.

对于湖人队来说是个关键时刻，再拿一分就能确保胜利。

请看下面的话：

The Wizards won! It was a great game. You should have seen it. Rogers hit seven threes, and the Wizard were down by ten at the half, but then they came back in the third quarter, and the Bulls collapsed² during crunch time.

现在，crunch time还有其他的解释和用法，假如公司在做一个项目，要求下周必须做完，所剩时间不多了，必须抓紧时间在最后期限前做完，那么也可以用crunch time，可以翻译为最后的时间，最后的期限。

例句：

"We've got three weeks left to complete six weeks worth of work. Looks like we'll be living on take-out for a while."

"I freakin' hate crunch time."