Frumple

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To crumple or rumple cloth or paper so that it becomes creased and wrinkled out of shape
2. To wrinkle, crease or disarrange something such as fabric, leaving it rumpled and uneven
3. Making something crushed or tousled by squeezing or handling it, leaving folds and creases behind

Etymology: "Frumple" is a Middle English verb meaning to wrinkle or crumple, and its closest relatives are still at work in English today: "frump" and "frumpy." The word has a Dutch cousin, "frommelen," which also means to wrinkle, so the family of words shares a common Germanic-era sense of crushing cloth or skin out of shape. The sense of "frump" as a dowdy, unfashionable person came later, and it is tempting to see the crumpled clothing in the verb as the root of that insult. That is a reasonable picture, since a garment that has been crushed and never pressed looks shabby, but the surviving evidence simply shows the two words as related forms rather than tracing one directly into the other. What the record does show is that "frumple" was already in use in Middle English, where a noun "frumpil" or "frumpylle" was formed from the verb to name the resulting wrinkle or crease.

Synonyms: crumple, rumple, crease, wrinkle

Antonyms: smooth, flatten