squinch

• IPA^(key): /skwɪnt͡ʃ/

• Audio (Southern England)

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• Rhymes: -ɪntʃ

Squinch

Alteration of earlier scunch (“back part of the side of an opening”),[1] short for scuncheon.[2][3]

squinch (plural squinches)

1. (architecture) A structure constructed between two adjacent walls to aid in the transition from a polygonal to a circular structure, as when a dome is constructed on top of a square room.

Uncertain.[3] Probably blend of squint +‎ pinch.[2][1] Compare squink-eyed, variant of squint-eyed, so perhaps it is at least partly an altered form of squint.[4]

squinch (third-person singular simple present squinches, present participle squinching, simple past and past participle squinched)

1. (transitive) To scrunch up (one's face, etc.).
   • 2008 March 15, Gail Collins, “George Speaks, Badly”, in New York Times‎:

     The president squinched his face and bit his lip and seemed too antsy to stand still.

• squinch owl (possibly etymologically related)