"scrunch," v.t., antedating

[sagehen]

>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
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Rench"  was a commonly-heard variant on "rinse" when I was a kid.  Don't
know what light this might shed here.
AM

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