pucker

[ puhk-er ]
See synonyms for: puckerpuckered on Thesaurus.com

verb (used with or without object)
  1. to draw or gather into wrinkles or irregular folds, as material or a part of the face; constrict: Worry puckered his brow.

noun
  1. a wrinkle; an irregular fold.

  2. a puckered part, as of cloth tightly or crookedly sewn.

  1. Archaic. a state of agitation or perturbation.

Origin of pucker

1
1590–1600; apparently a frequentative form connected with poke2; see -er6 and for the meaning cf. purse

Other words from pucker

  • puck·er·er, noun
  • un·puck·ered, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use pucker in a sentence

  • Puckered with chills and goose-flesh, the fireside people huddled and sneezed around their respective hearths.

    Molly Make-Believe | Eleanor Hallowell Abbott
  • Its muscles were strangely contracted, the fingers thin to emaciation, the back of the hand closely puckered up.

British Dictionary definitions for pucker

pucker

/ (ˈpʌkə) /


verb
  1. to gather or contract (a soft surface such as the skin of the face) into wrinkles or folds, or (of such a surface) to be so gathered or contracted

noun
  1. a wrinkle, crease, or irregular fold

Origin of pucker

1
C16: perhaps related to poke ², from the creasing into baglike wrinkles

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012