crumple
/ˈkrʌmp(ə)l
/verb [with object]
1Crush (something, typically paper or cloth) so that it becomes creased and wrinkled: he crumpled up the paper bag (as adjective crumpled) a crumpled sheet...
- Finn crumpled the paper and threw it into the garbage can five feet away from us.
- She moves cigarettes in her pack, then crumples the paper and puts it on the shelf with chocolate bars.
- I always stack the dishes and put the silverware in a glass and crumple the paper and sweep up the errant rice, because I bussed tables for many years.
Synonyms
crush, scrunch up, screw up, squash, squeeze;
British scrumple
crease, wrinkle, crinkle, rumple, ruck up, tumble
British rare ruckle
1.1 [no object] Become creased, bent, or crooked: the bumper crumpled as it glanced off the wall...
- The frame twisted and bent and the car crumpled like cardboard.
- He had heard leaves crumple under the pressure of feet, yet there were no leaves on the ground.
- In cases of severe growth inhibition, the wings appeared crumpled with strong structural deformation.
1.2 [no object] (Of a person) suddenly flop down to the ground: she crumpled to the floor in a dead faint figurative her composure crumpled...
- His comrades had been studying the green leaves with interest but had jumped half a foot into the air when their companion crumpled to the ground.
- It broke into a thousand tiny pieces, and my mother crumpled to the ground.
- Tom crumpled to the ground, bleeding heavily from the right side of his face.
Synonyms
collapse, give way, cave in, go to pieces, break down, crumble, be overcome
1.3 [no object] (Of a person’s face) suddenly sag and show an expression of desolation: the child’s face crumpled and he began to howl...
- She stared at me, her face crumpled by the expression of hurt upon her face.
- Her face crumpled and tears fell silently, as she clasped her husband's arm.
- But ask her if she's ever been with a man who loved her and her face crumples before the question's even finished.
Synonyms
pucker, screw up;
fall, sag, look sad, look miserable
noun
A crushed fold, crease, or wrinkle.The initial sense of containment and propriety is reassuring but after 10 minutes the stains start to show and the crumples appear and I'm left craving that comfortable black jumper....
- I tend not to shave, and my clothes get crumples, and similar.
- The slight hills and dips in the fields became the crumples of a quilt not completely smoothed down.
Derivatives
crumply
- To my horror, I was late, dressed in a mourning black crumply dress, and walked smack into a multitude of reporters and cameras.
- Anyway, wrestling with that was a lot like trying to figure out how to cut out this bag so it did that slouchy crumply thing I wanted.
- Today his crumply white face has filled out again, his belly is back with a vengeance and his clothes sense has deserted him.
Origin
Middle English: from obsolete crump 'make or become curved', from Old English crump 'bent, crooked', of West Germanic origin; related to German krumm.
This is from obsolete crump ‘make or become curved’, from Old English crump ‘bent, crooked’.
Rhymes
- magnanimously
- magnanimousness
- magna precaria
- magnascope
- magnate
- magnecrystallic
- magneplane
- magnesia
- magnesia cement
- magnesian
- magnesian limestone
- magnesic
- magnesiochromite
- magnesioferrite
- magnesiohornblende
- magnesioriebeckite
- magnesite
- magnesium
- magnesium carbonate
- magnesium chloride
- magnesium flare
- magnesium oxide
- magnesium ribbon
- magnesium sulfate
- magnesium sulphate