What is the difference between 'wrinkle' and 'crease' talking about skin?
Can we say 'wrinkles' form as you get old, and 'creases' form when you move part of your face? Like when you laugh and laugh lines appear.
What about a phrase like 'wrinkle one's nose (in disgust)'?
What about the difference between them talking about fabric and cloth?
Is it that wrinkle is unwanted and crease is both wanted and unwanted?
Thank you
A crease is a line in the skin that marks the point at which a limb or digit articulates (such as the inner surface of the elbow), or where one distinct part of the body meets another (such as the crease where the thigh meets the buttock, or a woman's breast lies against her ribcage).
I personally would use crease to describe a laugh line, though that might depend on how distinct it is: if it is very obvious, or is permanently visible, I might actually call it a wrinkle (especially if it is on the face of an older person).
A wrinkle is a (generally unwanted) furrow in the skin that develops with age, sun exposure, or a combination of both.
Some wrinkles may begin as creases, so there can be a degree of overlap in the terminology in specific instances.
To wrinkle one's nose is an idiomatic expression that does not necessarily involve wrinkles as I have described them above.
Finally, clothing has wrinkles when the folds in question are undesired, and creases when they are either produced intentionally or are unusually distinct (such as might happen when a shirt has been squashed into an overfull suitcase).
I'll answer in terms of "tone".
When one uses the word crease to describe human skin, the idea of the skin's plasticity is front and center. A satirist (a Percy Wyndham Lewis, say) might use the word to dehumanize his subject for comic effect.
With laugh-lines or frown-lines the person's emotions are front and center. "Lines" are softer than "creases".
With "wrinkles" the person's age, or the aging process itself, is front and center. The word alone is fairly neutral; adjectives and adverbs would set the tone. Wrinkles are to the face what smaller tributaries are to a river system. Wrinkles on the face are finer than lines.
When speaking not about humans:
A crease is a straight and sharply delineated fold in the material.
A wrinkle is an undulation in the material (metal) or a combination of smaller creases and undulations in fabric.
A wrinkle is a dent or line where the smoothness is interrupted
A crease is an angular or rounded shape made by folding.
Examples:
You might fret about a wrinkle in your skirt or a new wrinkle on your face or “a crease in your trousers” .
Another kind of wrinkle is more figurative: a small complication or problem that arises suddenly.
