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crumple

/ˈkrʌmpl//ˈkrʌmpl/·verb
to crush something into irregular folds and creases
Fig. 1 — The car comes in steady, aimed at a concrete block that has no plans to move.
01Definition

To crumple is to collapse something into folds — paper in a fist, a fender in a crash, a shirt at the bottom of a bag. A frequentative of the obsolete crump, 'to curl up', the word keeps two things in every use: the material gives all at once, and the creases stay. It stretches naturally to people and faces — a boxer crumples to the canvas, a child's face crumples before the tears — the same sudden folding, in flesh. Crucially, what crumples holds together: nothing breaks off, nothing scatters; the shape is ruined but the thing is whole.

02In use
  • iHe crumpled the rejection letter and dropped it in the bin without a word.
  • iiA car's front end is engineered to crumple and squash flat, spending the crash's force before it reaches the cabin.
  • iiiHer face crumpled when she heard the flight had already gone.
03Collocations
  • crumple zone
  • crumple into a ball
  • her face crumpled
  • crumple to the ground
  • a crumpled shirt

Family crumpled (adjective) · crumple zone (noun)

04Relations

=crush, scrunch, wad up, crease, rumple

≠smooth, flatten, straighten

06TOEFL & IELTS

Everyday and expressive rather than academic: in IELTS narrative writing and Speaking Part 2, 'the letter lay crumpled in the bin' or 'he crumpled to the ground' earns range where 'crushed' would be flat. Reading passages on car safety rely on the fixed term crumple zone. The trap is crumble — one letter away and a different event entirely: paper crumples (folds, stays whole), a biscuit crumbles (breaks into fragments). The adjective crumpled is the word's commonest form in print.

07Asked
Why do cars have crumple zones?
A crumple zone is named for what it is built to do: the front and rear sections of a car are engineered to crumple — to collapse into folds — in a collision, so that folding metal absorbs the crash energy over a longer moment instead of passing it to the people inside. The rigid cabin stays whole while the sacrificial zones fold, which is exactly what the scene above stages.
What does it mean when someone's face crumples?
When a face crumples, it folds suddenly out of its composed shape — usually the instant before crying, or on hearing bad news. Dictionaries list this as a sense in its own right, and it carries the word's core image: a smooth surface giving way all at once into creases. It is emotional collapse made visible, and writers reach for it because it shows distress without naming it.
Does crumple also mean to fall down?
Yes — a person who crumples folds to the ground, suddenly and without resistance: 'he crumpled to the floor', 'she crumpled up in pain'. The verb suggests the legs giving way like paper rather than a stiff toppling fall, which is what separates it from collapse: crumple keeps the image of soft folding even when the thing folding is a body.
What is the difference between crumple and crumple up?
Almost none in meaning — 'up' just completes the action. You can crumple a page slightly, but if you crumple it up, it has become a ball. Learner dictionaries list 'crumple (up)' as one entry, with the particle adding thoroughness, the way 'eat up' finishes what 'eat' starts. In careful writing use the bare verb for partial folding and the phrasal for the finished wad.
What does crumpled mean?
Crumpled is the adjective the verb leaves behind: full of creases that should not be there — a crumpled suit, a crumpled napkin, crumpled bank notes. It implies past mistreatment rather than design: the thing was smooth, something folded it, and the folds stayed. Note that a deliberately pleated skirt is never 'crumpled'; the word almost always carries a small accusation.
Is crumple related to crumble?
No — they are lookalikes, not relatives. Crumple descends from the old verb crump, 'to curl up', while crumble belongs to the crumb family — and the ancestry shows in the results: crumpling leaves one folded piece, crumbling leaves many small ones. Old plaster crumbles off a wall in flakes; the can in your fist crumples and stays a can. Swap the verbs and the sentence quietly reports the wrong physical event.