crinkle
Americanverb (used with or without object)
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to wrinkle; crimple; ripple.
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to make slight, sharp sounds; rustle.
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to turn or wind in many little bends and twists.
noun
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a wrinkle or ripple.
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a crinkling sound.
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a turn or twist.
verb
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to form or cause to form wrinkles, twists, or folds
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to make or cause to make a rustling noise
noun
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a wrinkle, twist, or fold
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a rustling noise
Other Word Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
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has crinkledperfect 3rd person singular
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have crinkledperfect
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have been crinklingperfect progressive
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has been crinklingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am crinklingprogressive 1st person singular
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are crinklingprogressive
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is crinklingprogressive 3rd person singular
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crinklessingular 3rd person
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crinklingparticiple
Past
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had crinkledperfect
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had been crinklingperfect progressive
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was crinklingprogressive singular
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were crinklingprogressive plural
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crinkledparticiple
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crinkledsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of crinkle
1350–1400; Middle English crinklen; akin to Old English crincan to bend, yield, Dutch krinkelen to crinkle; see cringle, cringe, crank 1, -le
Explanation
When you ball up a piece of paper in your hand, you crinkle it — you make a smooth thing wrinkled. Use the verb crinkle to describe what happens when you ball up a freshly ironed shirt and shove it in a suitcase, or the way your favorite teacher scrunches her eyes when she smiles. You can also call the creases or wrinkles themselves crinkles. You might become so annoyed at the crinkles in your curtains that you take them down and iron them. Crinkle comes from the Old English crincan, "to bend or to yield."
Vocabulary lists containing crinkle
Amal Unbound
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Eleanor & Park
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The Lions of Little Rock
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Coaxing extra fudginess out of brownies with coffee, without sacrificing the requisite crinkle top.
From Salon • May 12, 2026
Don’t be shy about shape or size — shoestring, steak-cut, crinkle, waffle, sweet potato — I’ll even give a pass to tater tots for the sake of this exercise.
From Salon • Sep. 16, 2025
While your family and friends might be used to seeing the typical chocolate crinkle cookies on holiday spreads, this red velvet version brings a vibrant and festive color to the table.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 26, 2022
Macfarlane, a seasoned lead of a dozen-plus straight Hallmark holiday romances including “Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen” and “A Shoe Addict’s Christmas,” is skilled at a Labradoresque eyebrow crinkle that could make anyone swoon.
From New York Times • Sep. 29, 2022
His face was red and his eyebrows pointed toward each other, making a wrinkly crinkle in his forehead.
From "A Boy Called Bat" by Elana K. Arnold
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
