Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To crush together or press into wrinkles; rumple.
  • intransitive verb To cause to collapse.
  • intransitive verb To become wrinkled.
  • intransitive verb To collapse.
  • noun An irregular fold, crease, or wrinkle.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make crooked; deform; distort into curves.
  • To draw or press into irregular folds; rumple; wrinkle.
  • To contract into wrinkles; shrink; shrivel.
  • noun That which is crumpled, shriveled, or pressed into wrinkles; an irregular fold or wrinkle.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To draw or press into wrinkles or folds; to crush together; to rumple.
  • intransitive verb To contract irregularly; to show wrinkles after being crushed together.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A crease, wrinkle, or irregular fold.
  • verb transitive To rumple; to press into wrinkles by crushing together.
  • verb transitive To cause to collapse.
  • verb intransitive To become wrinkled.
  • verb intransitive To collapse.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb become wrinkled or crumpled or creased
  • verb fall apart
  • verb to gather something into small wrinkles or folds
  • verb fold or collapse

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English crumplen, probably frequentative of crumpen, to curl up; see crumpet.]

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Examples

  • Then suddenly I saw her eyes break, her expression crumple, her mouth drop open in a moan, and she flung her arms around me and pulled my head against her breast.

    The Convict and Other Stories James Lee Burke 2010

  • God, who wants us killed, who will beat us until we "crumple" on his

    Jane Smiley: HuffPost Book Review: Republican Gomorrah 2009

  • Plastic deformation ie mountian building, folding etc... is generally a precursor to the breaking of the rocks that is the fualting and thus the earthquake inducement and you measure this in strain rates which shows that for the middle of the 'crumple' zone or mountian ridge like the apanines in Italy the rate of deformation how fast its folding up is faster than that at the edges.

    Snell-Pym » 2008 » October 2008

  • Hott Notes rocks because it has a cool "crumple" sound effect when you delete stickies; also its stickies have a very nice default appearance, with a gradient background.

    Archive 2006-03-01 Jonathan Aquino 2006

  • Plastic deformation ie mountian building, folding etc... is generally a precursor to the breaking of the rocks that is the fualting and thus the earthquake inducement and you measure this in strain rates which shows that for the middle of the 'crumple' zone or mountian ridge like the apanines in Italy the rate of deformation how fast its folding up is faster than that at the edges.

    Snell-Pym » Earthquakes and their Recurrance times 2008

  • However it seems that in fact it was proving very difficult to fit mandatory road-safety features such as crumple zones, airbags and a structural cage around the passenger compartment into the 1320lb weight limit.

    Signs of the Times 2010

  • It's a two-seater (for now, perhaps a hatch back family model will be out alter) and users will have to be well informed that this "Light Sport Aircraft" was 110 pounds (50 kilograms) overweight in accommodating roadworthy-assuring safety items such as crumple zones.

    Newlaunches.com 2010

  • The vehicle will have features of regular road vehicles, such as crumple zones and airbags.

    PhysOrg.com - latest science and technology news stories 2010

  • With an all sheet-metal body, it has a strong passenger compartment, with safety features such as crumple zones, intrusion-resistant doors, seat belts, strong seats and anchorages, and the rear tailgate glass bonded to the body.

    Gizmag Emerging Technology Magazine 2009

  • But she says she knew it was time to leave after she watched a fetus "crumple" as it was vacuumed out of a patient's uterus

    Latest Articles 2009

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