crease

/kris/

/kris/

Other forms: creases; creased; creasing

A crease is a fold, wrinkle, or line, like the crease in your perfectly ironed pants or the worried crease in your dad's forehead when he sees you heading out into the snow without a hat and scarf.

A crease can be straight and sharp — think of the creases in a folded paper airplane — or something more like a soft indentation, like the crease in your blankets telling you your cat was just there. It's a verb too: "If you lie on the floor, you'll crease your ball gown!" Etymologists guess that crease comes from crest and its root, which means "to turn or bend."

Definitions of crease

1. noun

   an angular or rounded shape made by folding
   “a crease in his trousers”

   synonyms: bend, crimp, flexure, fold, plication

   types:

   plait, pleat

   any of various types of fold formed by doubling fabric back upon itself and then pressing or stitching into shape

   kink, twirl, twist

   a sharp bend in a line produced when a line having a loop is pulled tight

   pucker, ruck

   an irregular fold in an otherwise even surface (as in cloth)

   box pleat

   a flat double pleat made by folding under the fabric on either side of it

   inverted pleat

   a box pleat reversed so that the fullness is turned inward

   kick pleat

   pleat in back of a straight skirt to allow ease in walking

   knife pleat

   a single pleat turned in one direction

   tuck

   a narrow flattened pleat or fold that is stitched in place

   type of:

   angular shape, angularity

   a shape having one or more sharp angles
2. noun

   a slight depression in the smoothness of a surface
   synonyms: crinkle, furrow, line, seam, wrinkle

   types:

   crow's feet, crow's foot, laugh line

   a wrinkle in the skin at the outer corner of your eyes

   dermatoglyphic

   the lines that form patterns on the skin (especially on the fingertips and the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet)

   frown line

   a facial wrinkle associated with frowning

   life line, lifeline, line of life

   a crease on the palm; its length is said by palmists to indicate how long you will live

   heart line, line of heart, love line, mensal line

   a crease on the palm; palmists say it indicates your emotional nature

   line of Saturn, line of destiny, line of fate

   a crease on the palm; palmists say it indicates how successful you will be

   type of:

   depression, impression, imprint

   a concavity in a surface produced by pressing
3. verb

   make wrinkles or creases on a smooth surface; make a pressed, folded or wrinkled line in
   “crease the paper like this to make a crane”

   synonyms: crinkle, crisp, ruckle, scrunch, scrunch up, wrinkle

   types:

   cockle, crumple, knit, pucker, rumple

   to gather something into small wrinkles or folds

   pucker, ruck, ruck up

   become wrinkled or drawn together

   type of:

   fold, fold up, turn up

   bend or lay so that one part covers the other
4. verb

   make wrinkled or creased
   synonyms: furrow, wrinkle

   type of:

   fold, fold up, turn up

   bend or lay so that one part covers the other
5. verb

   become wrinkled or crumpled or creased
   synonyms: crinkle, crumple, rumple, wrinkle

   type of:

   fold, fold up

   become folded or folded up
6. verb

   scrape gently
   synonyms: graze, rake

   types:

   shave

   touch the surface of lightly

   skive

   remove the surface of

   type of:

   brush

   touch lightly and briefly
7. noun

   a Malayan dagger with a wavy blade
   synonyms: creese, kris

   type of:

   dagger, sticker

   a short knife with a pointed blade used for piercing or stabbing