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
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.
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
O’Rourke has cropped hair, a graying goatee and expressive eyes that crinkle with his toothy smile.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 14, 2023
The other women also bring cookies for sharing: Nanaimo bars, cranberry cookies, chocolate-peppermint crinkle cookies.
From Seattle Times • Nov. 25, 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
My dad clenches his jaw as he looks away, back at the TV screen, but my mom’s eyes crinkle as she watches me, waiting for me to keep going.
From "King and the Dragonflies" by Kacen Callender
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.
