name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A wrinkle.

Verb

1. 1
   To make wrinkled, particularly fabric. transitive

   "I'll rumple my bedsheets so it looks like I was here last night."

2. 2
   become wrinkled or crumpled or creased wordnet
3. 3
   To muss; to tousle. transitive
4. 4
   to gather something into small wrinkles or folds wordnet
5. 5
   disturb the smoothness of wordnet

Proper Noun

1. 1
   A surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms

puckerruffleagitatebeatbeat upbristle

Example

More examples

"I'll rumple my bedsheets so it looks like I was here last night."

Etymology

From Middle English rimplen (“to become wrinkled”). Compare German rumpeln (“to din, to make the welkin ring”) and Dutch rommelen (“to rumble”).

Related phrases

rumple up

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.