unwrinkle

English

Etymology

From un- +‎ wrinkle.

Verb

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

(transitive) To remove wrinkles from.
- 1935, Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris‎^[1], 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^[2], Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Part 2, p. 85:
  The job was done before Silver could unwrinkle the grimace on his face.
(intransitive) To stop being wrinkly; to become flat or smooth.
- 1959, Mervyn Peake, chapter 66, in Titus Alone‎^[3], 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^[4], 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^[5], 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

to remove wrinkles from

German: glätten (de)
Portuguese: desenrugar