to shake out the wrinkle

3.0

Remove small folds from clothes by shaking them

phrasal verb

: sacudir las arrugas

I snapped a cornflower blue towel to shake out the wrinkles and pinned it to the line.

Examples

He shook out the wrinkles from his shirt before putting it on.
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

to iron out

vsto shake out the wrinkle

1 3.1

Press and smooth clothes with a hot metal tool to remove wrinkles

removes creases by shaking rather than by pressing with heat

to unwrinkle

vsto shake out the wrinkle

3.3

To make fabric smooth by removing folds

removes creases by shaking fabric rather than using other methods

to uncrumple

vsto shake out the wrinkle

4.4

To make paper or cloth smooth again after it becomes wrinkled

removes creases by shaking rather than unfolding crumpled areas

to unpucker

vsto shake out the wrinkle

7.9

Smooth a wrinkled area of skin, fabric, or lips

removes creases by shaking, not by releasing puckered edges

How Smooth

to iron

72 1.0

to unwrinkle

3.3

to shake out the wrinkle

3.0

Surface Forms

shake out the wrinkle infinitive

shaking out the wrinkle present participle

shakes out the wrinkle third person singular

shook out the wrinkle past

shaken out the wrinkle past participle

Morphology

shake + out + the + wrinkle

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'.