How to Use rumple in a Sentence

rumple

verb
  • He rumpled her hair affectionately.
  • The silver hide rumpled and stretched over the massive body.
    — Anton Money, Outdoor Life, 4 June 2026
  • He was rumpled in the summer heat and wearing a collarless white shirt.
    — Molly Fischer, New Yorker, 21 Jan. 2026
  • It's lived-in — her earthy brown hair is rumpled, her eyes hazily rimmed with charcoal and lips often left bare.
    — Meirav Devash, Allure, 10 Sep. 2017
  • His clothes were rumpled, and his dark hair was long and scraggly under his engineer’s cap.
    — Rick Rojas and Kate Pastor, New York Times, 6 Jan. 2017
  • These sheets washed well, and came out of my dryer looking rumpled, but not hopelessly creased.
    — Lisa Lombardi, wsj.com, 25 Sep. 2023
  • On one of the double beds, the rust-orange spread is rumpled; outside the door to the bathroom, there is water in the sink.
    — Laura Collins-Hughes, New York Times, 8 Nov. 2023
  • Or Pritzker could try a Trump-like move and stop appearing in public looking rumpled and always insist on an ample suit coat.
    — Chris Stirewalt, The Hill, 11 Apr. 2025
  • In a corral surrounded by a waffling, loose-weave wire fence some eight feet tall, a chocolate-brown alpaca lay in a heap, matted with blood, its long neck rumpled like a cast-off knee-high.
    — Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 13 Feb. 2017
  • It was returned to me with its chiffon over-layer in shreds and my previously thriving silk buds were rumpled, drooping, and wilted—like a flower bed dug up by the neighbor’s dog.
    — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 20 July 2024
  • It was returned to me with its chiffon over-layer in shreds and my previously thriving silk buds were rumpled, drooping, and wilted—like a flower bed dug up by the neighbor’s dog.
    — Lilah Ramzi, Vogue, 20 July 2024
  • With his suit jacket off and his dress shirt rumpled from a night of arguing to no avail with the referees, Rivers stood with his back against a wall with a stat sheet folded in his hands and vented.
    — Broderick Turner, latimes.com, 16 Mar. 2018
  • Hunt Broken Country The best winter range is often rumpled badlands adjacent to hay and grainfields.
    — Outdoor Life, 19 Nov. 2019
  • Her hair is frizzy, or her dress is rumpled, but that disheveledness was something that Turini wanted to explore in Maddie’s wardrobe to signify her lack of self.
    — Kerensa Cadenas, IndieWire, 16 Aug. 2024
  • The crinoline and boning typical of the brand’s founder’s creations were yanked out of the silhouettes, though, and the fabric was rumpled, underscoring Catherine’s working-woman story.
    — Rachel Tashjian, Harper's BAZAAR, 2 Mar. 2023
  • And there was no single form of equilibrium for a knitted sweater's resting shape; rather, there were multiple metastable states that were dependent on the fabric's history—the different ways it had been folded, stretched, or rumpled.
    — Ars Technica, 27 Dec. 2024
  • Tall, urbane, self-effacing McCary and rumpled Mooney—who shows up for our interview wearing a vintage sweatshirt covered with purple seals—have been a package deal since childhood.
    — Dylan Kai Dempsey, HWD, 24 July 2017
  • Anthony’s lawyer, Marty Lumetta (Richard Schiff, the picture of rumpled, put-upon frustration), has also worked too many of these cases to be optimistic.
    — Bill Goodykoontz, Detroit Free Press, 6 Feb. 2020
  • When his teams didn’t entertain, Moe became the show, this cursing, grumbling, rumpled 6-foot-5 firebrand who dressed like a ’70s private detective, a disheveled anti-hero who detested suits.
    — Sean Keeler, Denver Post, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Instead of being a preppy partner to chinos or the tasteful pop of pattern under a neutral suit, Malik wore his gingham shirt rumpled and untucked with a pair of paint-splatter jeans and a black baseball cap while in NYC this weekend.
    — Megan Gustashaw, GQ, 20 June 2017
  • Silver-haired and often rumpled, Lopez Obrador, 65, the son of provincial shopkeepers, is a lifelong politician and avid historian who embraces personal austerity, opting to travel on commercial airlines.
    — Patrick J. McDonnell, latimes.com, 5 June 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rumple.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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