I was looking up the Thayer’s definition of the Greek word στενοχωρέω (stenochōreō) commonly translated as crushed.

2 Corinthians 4:8a
We are pressured in every way but not crushed;

Thayer Definition:
1) to be in a narrow place
2) to straiten, compress, cramp, reduce to straits
2a) to be sorely straitened in spirit

From this definition I’m not getting why the word crushed is so commonly used. It’s reminiscent of Psalm 34:18 but that’s different. I don’t have TDNT or BDAG.

At the risk of being disrespectful to Scripture, my own very bad paraphrase would be:
“It feels like the world is caving in on us but we are not smushed;”

Any insight into why crushed it used?

The main reason for this post is I looked this up in the REB and think it’s magnificent and want to type it out for those of you who don’t have the translation. You’ll see they chose the word cornered.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11
But we have only earthenware jars to hold this treasure, and this proves that such transcendent power does not come from us; it is God’s alone. 8 We are hard pressed, but never cornered; bewildered, but never at our wits’ end; 9 hunted, but never abandoned to our fate; struck down, but never killed. 10 Wherever we go we carry with us in our body the death that Jesus died, so that in this body also the life that Jesus lives may be revealed. 11 For Jesus’s sake we are all our life being handed over to death, so that the life of Jesus may be revealed in this mortal body of ours. 12 Thus death is at work in us, but life in you.