wrinkle

• IPA^(key): /ˈɹɪŋkl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋkəl
• Hyphenation: wrink‧le

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”).

• wrincle (obsolete)

wrinkle (plural wrinkles)

1. A small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
3. A line or crease in the skin, especially when caused by age or fatigue.

   Spending time out in the sun may cause you to develop wrinkles sooner.

4. A fault, imperfection or bug especially in a new system or product; typically, they will need to be ironed out.

   We need to iron out the wrinkles in the plan before implementing it.

5. (informal) A twist on something existing; a novel difference.

   We've added a couple of new wrinkles to the policy.

   • 2015, Mark Ribowsky, Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars:

     There were now a grab bag of southern country-rock units with a new wrinkle—Black Oak Arkansas, for one, combined psychedelia, fifties rock, Hindu spiritualism, and gospel into “psycho-boogie,” or “raunch 'n' roll.”

From Middle English wrynklen, wrinklen (“to wrinkle”), from Old English *wrinclian (attested in past participle ġewrinclod (“wrinkled, crooked, winding”)). Cognate with Middle Dutch wronckelen, wrinckelen (“to wind, wrap, meander”), modern dialectal Dutch wrinkelen (“to wrinkle”). Compare also Middle English runklen (“to wrinkle, become wrinkled”).

wrinkle (third-person singular simple present wrinkles, present participle wrinkling, simple past and past participle wrinkled)

1. (transitive) To make wrinkles in; to cause to have wrinkles.

   Be careful not to wrinkle your dress before we arrive.

   • 1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto:

     her wrinkled form in black and white array'd

   • 1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 4.9, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 110:

     It was a pity nobody saw the display in the empty street, where the auroral breeze wrinkled a large luminous puddle, making of the telephone wires reflected in it illegible lines of black zigzags.

2. (intransitive) To pucker or become uneven or irregular.

   An hour in the tub will cause your fingers to wrinkle.

3. (intransitive, of skin) To develop irreversibly wrinkles; to age.

   The skin is the substance that wrinkles, shows age, stretches, scars and cuts.

4. (intransitive, obsolete) To sneer (at).
   • 1604 (date written), Iohn Marston [i.e., John Marston], Parasitaster, or The Fawne, […], London: […] T[homas] P[urfoot] for W[illiam] C[otton], published 1606, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     Ther's some weakenes in your brother you wrinkle at

• unwrinkled
• wrinkle-free
• wrinkly

wrinkle (plural wrinkles)

1. (US, dialect) A winkle

• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “wrinkle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

• Winkler