unwrinkle

Verb

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

1. (transitive) To remove wrinkles from.
   • He and she sat side by side like two wax people while the waiter stretched across to unwrinkle the tablecloth and straighten the knives.1935, Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris, New York: Vintage, published 1957, Part Two, p. 140
   • The job was done before Silver could unwrinkle the grimace on his face.2000, Gary Soto, Nickel and Dime, Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, Part 2, p. 85

   Synonyms:

   flatten out, smooth

2. (intransitive) To stop being wrinkly; to become flat or smooth.
   • 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.1959, Mervyn Peake, chapter 66, in Titus Alone, New York: Ballantine, published 1968, page 179
   • In a rain barrel, water
     unwrinkles to glass;
     a lime tree’s daughter
     there studies her face.1987, Derek Walcott, “Cul de Sac Valley”, in The Arkansas Testament, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, page 11