Link Centre Dictionary

wrinkle

UK/ˈɹɪŋkl̩/ US/ˈrɪŋkʌl/ uncommon informal obsolete us
noun (3) verb (4)

noun

1.

a slight depression in the smoothness of a surface

  • “his face has many lines”
  • “ironing gets rid of most wrinkles”
Synonyms
2.

a minor difficulty

  • “they finally have the wrinkles pretty well ironed out”
3.

a clever method of doing something (especially something new and different)

verb

1.

gather or contract into wrinkles or folds; pucker

  • “purse ones”
Synonyms
2.

make wrinkles or creases into a smooth surface

  • “The dress got wrinkled”
Synonyms
3.

make wrinkled or creased

  • “furrow one”
Synonyms
4.

become wrinkled or crumpled or creased

  • “This fabric won”
Synonyms

Origin

From Middle English wrinkle, wrynkel (“crease, fold, wrinkle”), from the verb (see below). Cognate with Dutch wrinkel (“wrinkle, crease”). Compare also Middle English runkel (“wrinkle”), from Old Norse hrukka (“wrinkle”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkwǭ (“wrinkle, crease”), whence also French fronce (“crooked smile, scowl, frown”), German Runzel (“wrinkle”), Danish rynke (“wrinkle”), Swedish rynka and rynkla (“wrinkle”).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.