"scrunch," v.t., antedating

Fri Jul 7 23:48:51 UTC 2006

OED2 offers 1861 from the English journalist George A. Sala, but here's a slightly earlier example from NYC:

  1856 _Knickerbocker_ (May) XLVII 509: His complexion looked as if it had all been made of the hardest and toughest kind of folds, which had been rubbed, and _runched_, and _scrunched_ down into shape like a twist of clothes in a scrubbing-machine.

  "Runch" seems to be unlisted (var. of "wrench"?), but I haven't checked DARE.  I wonder what a "scrubbing-machine" was like in 1856? OED doesn't list it either.

  JL

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