scrunch

American  

[skruhnch, skroonch] / skrʌntʃ, skrʊntʃ /

verb (used with object)

scrunches, present (3rd person singular) scrunched, past participle, past scrunching present participle

1. to crunch, crush, or crumple.

2. to contract; squeeze together.

   I had to scrunch my shoulders to get through the door.

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verb (used without object)

scrunches, present (3rd person singular) scrunched, past participle, past scrunching present participle

1. to squat or hunker (often followed bydown ).

noun

1. the act or sound of scrunching.

scrunch British  

/ skrʌntʃ /

verb

1. to crumple, crush, or crunch or to be crumpled, crushed, or crunched

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noun

1. the act or sound of scrunching

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

• scrunching
  present
• scrunched
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• scrunch
  simple
• scrunches
  simple
• have scrunched
  perfect
• has scrunched
  perfect
• am scrunching
  progressive
• are scrunching
  progressive
• is scrunching
  progressive
• have been scrunching
  perfect progressive
• has been scrunching
  perfect progressive

Past

• scrunched
  simple
• had scrunched
  perfect
• was scrunching
  progressive
• were scrunching
  progressive
• had been scrunching
  perfect progressive

Future

• will scrunch
  simple
• will have scrunched
  perfect
• will be scrunching
  progressive
• will have been scrunching
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of scrunch

First recorded in 1815–25; perhaps expressive variant of crunch

Explanation

To scrunch is to crumple or crush something. In the process of writing your novel by hand, you'll have to scrunch a lot of pages and toss them into the trash can. You can scrunch up you sister's favorite shirt and shove it back in her drawer after she says you can't borrow it, and you can also scrunch up your face in anger. Use this verb whenever you crease, wrinkle, crush, or squeeze something into a mass. It's also a good term for a crunching sound: "I heard a scrunch in the dry leaves under my window." Scrunch arose as an intensive form of crunch, originally meaning "to bite."

Example Sentences

You cook them really quickly in a pan with butter and then scrunch them, which allows for the maple-soy butter to pool in all the little pockets.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 11, 2026

We watched its robot slowly but smoothly make a coffee, scrunch up some socks and clear a table of perilously fragile wine glasses.

From BBC • Jan. 11, 2026

My face would scrunch up and I’d shudder from the intense flavors, but I never cried.

From Salon • Sep. 13, 2025

Small amounts of the DNA didn’t appear to affect the cells, but larger amounts caused them to scrunch up, suggesting they were responding to the stimulus.

From Science Magazine • Oct. 19, 2021

Some of them had to wear socks on their hands and some of them just had to scrunch their arms up in the sleeves of their jackets.

From "The Watsons Go to Birmingham" by Christopher Paul Curtis