unwrinkle

English

Etymology

un- +‎ wrinkle

Verb

unwrinkle (third-person singular simple present unwrinkles, present participle unwrinkling, simple past and past participle unwrinkled)

1. (transitive) To remove wrinkles from.
   • 1935, Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris‎, New York: Vintage, published 1957, Part Two, p. 140:

     He and she sat side by side like two wax people while the waiter stretched across to unwrinkle the tablecloth and straighten the knives.

   • 2000, Gary Soto, Nickel and Dime‎, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Part 2, p. 85:

     The job was done before Silver could unwrinkle the grimace on his face.

2. (intransitive) To stop being wrinkly; to become flat or smooth.
   • 1959, Mervyn Peake, chapter 66, in Titus Alone‎, New York: Ballantine, published 1968, page 179:

     His head protruded out of his torn collar much as the head of the tortoise protrudes from its shell, the throat unwrinkling, the eyes like beads, or pips of jet.

   • 1987, Derek Walcott, “Cul de Sac Valley”, in The Arkansas Testament‎, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 11:

     In a rain barrel, water
     unwrinkles to glass;
     a lime tree’s daughter
     there studies her face.

   • 1996, Charles Mathes, chapter 15, in The Girl Who Remembered Snow‎, New York: St. Martin’s Press, page 212:

     Emma went through the closet and removed the black gabardine jacket she had hung up to unwrinkle.

Synonyms

• (remove wrinkles from): flatten out, smooth

Translations