Other forms: scrunched, scrunching
To scrunch is to squeeze something into a wrinkled ball. Paper, mostly, and usually before throwing it.
It splits round an object and often takes up. The word is imitative, built from the sound of paper being crushed, which is why it feels so satisfying to say. Hair has a whole technique named after it, since scrunching curly hair encourages the curl. There is a second sense about faces, since scrunching up your eyes against the sun is the same movement in miniature.
1verbscrunchTo crush something into a wrinkled mass.
“He would scrunch up every draft and start again.”
Also accepted in games: crumple
Attested since about 1800. Probably an intensive form of crunch; ultimately derived from the onomatopoeia of a crumpling sound; or perhaps a squeeze and crunch.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA