To scrunch means to squeeze, crush, or compress something into a smaller, wrinkled shape. When you scrunch up a piece of paper before throwing it away, you're crushing it into a tight ball. If you scrunch your face in disgust after tasting something bitter, you're squeezing your features together. Someone might scrunch their hair after washing it to create waves and curls, working it with their fingers in a gentle squeezing motion.

The word captures both the action and the sound: there's often a crunchy or crinkly noise when you scrunch dry leaves in your hand or scrunch through snow with your boots. You can scrunch yourself into a small space, like when you scrunch down to hide behind a couch during hide-and-seek, or scrunch up your shoulders when you're cold.

Scrunch is related to crunch, and both words sound like what they describe. When you scrunch something, you're making it smaller and often messier, whether it's scrunching a napkin, scrunching your toes in the sand, or scrunching your eyes shut against bright sunlight.