crinkle.
To fold, crease, crumple, or wad.
Meaning & usage
To fold, crease, crumple, or wad.
He crinkled the wrapper and threw it out.
The old man's lined face crinkled into a smile.
To rustle, as stiff cloth when moved.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crenclen (“to bend, buckle”), from Old English *crinclian, frequentative form of Old English crincan (“to yield”), from Proto-Germanic *kringaną (“to turn, to fall, to yield”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with North Frisian krenge, krönge (“to obtain, reach, attain”), Dutch krinkelen (“to turn, wind”). Related to cringe.
A wrinkle, fold, crease, or unevenness.
He observed the crinkles forming around his eyes and suddenly felt old.
The act of crinkling.
Chocolate crinkle; a type of cookie made of primarily cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and water
Where this word comes from
From Middle English crenclen (“to bend, buckle”), from Old English *crinclian, frequentative form of Old English crincan (“to yield”), from Proto-Germanic *kringaną (“to turn, to fall, to yield”), from Proto-Indo-European *ger- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with North Frisian krenge, krönge (“to obtain, reach, attain”), Dutch krinkelen (“to turn, wind”). Related to cringe.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.