Other forms: wrinkled, wrinkles, wrinkling
A wrinkle is a small line or fold in something that ought to be smooth — the corner of an eye, the skin on the back of a hand, a shirt left folded in a bag too long. You can see them and you can feel them under a finger.
Wrinkle works as a verb too: you wrinkle your nose at a bad smell, and linen wrinkles the moment you sit down in it. Whole industries live off the noun, with anti-wrinkle cream on one shelf and wrinkle-free cotton on another. Then there is the figurative use, which is common and useful: a wrinkle is a small complication in an otherwise fine plan ('there is one wrinkle — the flight lands at midnight'), and to iron out the wrinkles is to settle those last small problems. Keep the sizes straight: a wrinkle is small and irregular, a crease is a single sharp line, and a fold is something you did on purpose.
1nounwrinkleA small line or fold in skin.
“Fine wrinkles had gathered at the corners of his eyes.”
2nouncreaseA small crease in cloth, paper or another smooth surface.
“She smoothed the wrinkles out of the tablecloth with her palm.”
3verbformTo form small lines or folds, or to make them.
“He wrinkled his nose at the smell coming off the bins.”
4nouncomplicationA small complication in a plan.
“The trip is booked, apart from one wrinkle: the ferry does not run on Sundays.”
wrinkle is a fold in a surface.
The noun wrinkle has been in English since Middle English, where wrynkel meant a crease or fold, and it grew out of the verb rather than the other way round. The neighbours kept their own versions: Dutch wrinkel, and from a related Norse line German Runzel and Danish rynke.
Middle English
wrinkle
English, today
wrinkle
Built 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”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA