Other forms: rumpled
To rumple is to crease and disorder something smooth. Rumple the sheets, rumpled hair, a rumpled suit.
It is affectionate about hair and mildly disapproving about clothes — a rumpled suit says somebody slept in it. The creases are soft and random rather than folded, which is what separates rumpled from creased. Note crumple, which is the same family and means collapsing rather than creasing.
1verbrumpleTo crease and disorder something smooth.
“He rumpled his son's hair affectionately as he walked past.”
rumple is a creasing.
Middle English rimplen means to wrinkle, from a Germanic root. German rumpeln and Dutch rimpel come from the same family.
Middle English
rimplen — to become wrinkled
English, today
rumple
From Middle English rimplen (“to become wrinkled”). Compare German rumpeln (“to din, to make the welkin ring”) and Dutch rommelen (“to rumble”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire