wrinkle.
A small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
Meaning & usage
A small furrow, ridge or crease in an otherwise smooth surface.
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.
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.
A twist on something existing; a novel difference.
We've added a couple of new wrinkles to the policy.
Where this word comes from
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”).
To make wrinkles in; to cause to have wrinkles.
Be careful not to wrinkle your dress before we arrive.
To pucker or become uneven or irregular.
An hour in the tub will cause your fingers to wrinkle.
To develop irreversibly wrinkles; to age.
The skin is the substance that wrinkles, shows age, stretches, scars and cuts.
To sneer (at).
Where this word comes from
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”).
A winkle
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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.