scrunch
/skɹʌnt͡ʃ/ verb, noun
Forms scrunches scrunching scrunched
- verb (transitive) To crumple and squeeze to make more compact. “He scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it at the whistling girl.”
- verb (with object "one's face") To contract the muscles of one's face so as to draw their facial features together, out of pain, discomfort, uncertainty, etc. “He scrunched his face at his wife's confounding request.”
- noun A crunching noise.
Synonyms
crump thud squat crouch scrunch up hunker hunker down wrinkle ruckle crease crinkle crisp
Etymology
Attested since about 1800. Probably an intensive form of crunch; ultimately derived from the onomatopoeia of a crumpling sound; or perhaps a blend of squeeze + crunch.
Webster’s 1913
Etymology [Cf. Scranch, Crunch.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “scrunch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details