Scrunch
//skɹʌnt͡ʃ// noun, verb
noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A crunching noise.
- 2 a crunching noise wordnet
Verb
- 1 To crumple and squeeze to make more compact. transitive
"He scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it at the whistling girl."
- 2 make wrinkles or creases on a smooth surface; make a pressed, folded or wrinkled line in; ‘crisp’ is archaic wordnet
- 3 To crumple and squeeze to make more compact.; To contract the muscles of one's face so as to draw their facial features together, out of pain, discomfort, uncertainty, etc. transitive
"He scrunched his face at his wife's confounding request."
- 4 sit on one's heels wordnet
- 5 Alternative form of scranch. alt-of, alternative
Show 1 more definition
- 6 make a noise typical of an engine lacking lubricants wordnet
Example
More examples"He scrunched the paper into a ball and threw it at the whistling girl."
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.
Related phrases
More for "scrunch"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.