to shake out the wrinkle
1
3.0
- phrasal verb
- I snapped a cornflower blue towel to shake out the wrinkles and pinned it to the line.
Examples
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He shook out the wrinkles from his shirt before putting it on.
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After washing the tablecloth, she shook it out to remove the wrinkles.
-
To keep his jacket looking neat, he shook out the wrinkles after hanging it up.
Synonyms
1
3.1
Press and smooth clothes with a hot metal tool to remove wrinkles
1
4.4
To make paper or cloth smooth again after it becomes wrinkled
1
7.9
Smooth a wrinkled area of skin, fabric, or lips
1
3.3
To make fabric smooth by removing folds
How Smooth
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to remove creases by shaking a piece of fabric' is directly compositional from 'shake' (move/vibrate), 'out' (away/removal), and 'wrinkle' (a fold). The particle 'out' signals removal and the whole phrase follows a common verb + particle + object pattern found cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents can readily infer the meaning.
Etymology
Shake out the wrinkle comes from the simple action of shaking a piece of clothing so the wrinkle falls out. When you shake out a shirt, the creases open and the cloth looks smooth, so the phrase means 'to remove creases or folds'.