Wrinkle Meaning
/ˈɹɪŋkl̩/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounA small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
nounA line or crease in the skin, especially when caused by age or fatigue.
Sentence Examples
Hang up your shirts before they wrinkle.
From within her wrinkle furrowed face two alert and inquisitive eyes looked at me.
With her foot she smoothed a wrinkle in the throw rug.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After careful ironing, the ____ completely disappeared from his favorite shirt.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She noticed a small ____ on her face and wondered if she was starting to look older this year today.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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.”"
— 2015, Mark Ribowsky, Whiskey Bottles and Brand-New Cars:
"her wrinkled form in black and white array'd"
— 1712 May, [Alexander Pope], “The Rape of the Locke. An Heroi-comical Poem.”, in Miscellaneous Poems and Translations. […], London: […] Bernard Lintott […], →OCLC, canto:
"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."
— 1957 March 7, Vladimir Nabokov, chapter 4.9, in Pnin, Heinemann, page 110:
"Ther's some weakenes in your brother you wrinkle 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):
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After careful ironing, the ____ completely disappeared from his favorite shirt.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She noticed a small ____ on her face and wondered if she was starting to look older this year today.