rumple

/ˈrʌmpəl/

Other forms: rumpled; rumpling; rumples

To mess something up or disarrange it is to rumple it. Even if you make your bed neatly in the morning, your dog might jump up and rumple it as soon as you leave for school.

When you take something smooth or neat and make it wrinkled or crumpled, you rumple it. A dad might have the annoying habit of always wanting to rumple his son's perfectly combed hair, for example. And if you fall asleep in your tuxedo, you'll rumple it too. Experts think that rumple started as a variation on the now-obsolete verb rimple, "to wrinkle."

Definitions of rumple

1. verb

   disturb the smoothness of
   synonyms: mess up, ruffle, ruffle up

   type of:

   disarrange

   destroy the arrangement or order of
2. verb

   gather something into small wrinkles or folds
   synonyms: cockle, crumple, knit, pucker

   draw

   contract

   type of:

   crease, crinkle, crisp, ruckle, scrunch, scrunch up, wrinkle

   make wrinkles or creases on a smooth surface; make a pressed, folded or wrinkled line in
3. verb

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

   type of:

   fold, fold up

   become folded or folded up