The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 letter word GRIND
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
G
R
I
N
D
More clues leading to the result GRIND
- Smile: daughter is to prepare the coffee?
- Wear down to earth, as Her Majesty might say
- Good skin’s hard work!
- Masticate good bit of bacon
- Crunch good bit of bacon
- Chew pig’s tail with crackling
- Crush good part of orange
- Monotonous labour of Greek duke around home
- Smile and start to detest the nine-to-five?
- Laborious work, note, filling crossword diagram
Buddy explains!

The straight part
We know that "Crunch" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case crunch = grind.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.
What does GRIND mean?
GRIND noun- The act of reducing to powder, or of sharpening, by friction.
- Something that has been reduced to powder, something that has been ground.
- A specific degree of pulverization of coffee beans.
- A tedious and laborious task.
- A grinding trick on a skateboard or snowboard.
- One who studies hard; a swot.
- Grindcore (subgenre of heavy metal)
- Hustle
- To reduce to smaller pieces by crushing with lateral motion.
- To shape with the force of friction.
- To remove material by rubbing with an abrasive surface.
- To become ground, pulverized, or polished by friction.
- To move with much difficulty or friction; to grate.
- To slide the flat portion of a skateboard or snowboard across an obstacle such as a railing.
- To oppress, hold down or weaken.
- To rotate the hips erotically.
- To dance in a sexually suggestive way with both partners in very close proximity, often pressed against each other.
- To repeat a task a large number of times in a row to achieve a specific goal.
- To operate by turning a crank.
- To produce mechanically and repetitively as if by turning a crank.
- To automatically format and indent code.
- To instill through repetitive teaching.
- To eat.
- To work or study hard; to hustle or drudge.
- To annoy or irritate (a person); to grind one's gears.
- A traditional communal pilot whale hunt in the Faroe Islands.