what's the word

[shabani]

hi everyone,I can't seem to remember the word for making a lot of lines appear on your face usually because of laughter.

can anyone help please?

thanks

 

[Rover_KE]

'His face is creased/wrinkled with laughter lines.'

Shabani, your previous posts show that you understand the use of capital letters to begin sentences.

Please do so every time.

Rover

 

[shabani]

Oh...I will. Thanks for reminding me

 

[birdeen's call]

"Dimple" is a nice word.

Margaret's face dimpled up into a merry laugh.

North and South by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell

Koerg burst in upon them, dimpling all over with merry laughter.

Connor Magan's Luck and Other Stories by M. T. W.

 

[allenman]

Dimples don't equal wrinkles so that's a bad suggestion for the OP's question.

Not a teacher

 

[birdeen's call]

Dimples don't equal wrinkles so that's a bad suggestion for the OP's question.

Not a teacher

They don't, but why is it a bad suggestion?

PS: Perhaps I understand the word incorrectly. Do dimples have to be almost perfectly round and become wrinkles when they're not? Some people have those little round dimples like this baby. These are not lines and I'm guessing this could be your objection. But doesn't this man have a dimple on his right cheek too? He has a longer line, almost parallel the the symmetry axis of his face, and at least one shorter line radiating from the midpoint of the longer one. Do they not form a dimple?

 

[5jj]

Do they not form a dimple?

They do indeed.

However, your quotations are from books written over a century ago. 'Merry laughter' has a somewhat dated ring to me. Whilst I feel that we might still use 'dimpling up in laughter', the words give a different picture from 'wrinkling/creasing'. Laughing wrinkles. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[birdeen's call]

They do indeed.

However, your quotations are from books written over a century ago. 'Merry laughter' has a somewhat dated ring to me. Whilst I feel that we might still use 'dimpling up in laughter', the words give gives a different picture from 'wrinkling/creasing'. Laughing wrinkles. | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Certainly, but I understand that the OP didn't ask about wrinkles but "lines on your face".

When I look for examples in COHA, they are arranged chronologically, with the oldest on the first page. I often find what I'm looking for there and I look no more.I felt these were valid examples, despite the word "merry" in them.

 

[BobK]

Certainly, but I understand that the OP didn't ask about wrinkles but "lines on your face"....

Dimples aren't lines - they're more like dents. They can be temporary - appearing when people laugh or smile. (They can also be permanent - I have one on my chin. And because the skin around the 'crater' is not flat, creases can be caused around them when the shape of the face changes. But this is not the sort of dimple we are talking about.)

So expressions like 'dimpled into a smile' (which, as others have said, seems rather dated) is a sort of metaphor - meaning 'broke into a smile, making dimples appear'.

FWIW, I wouldn't say it was a bad suggestion - I'm all in favour of widening vocabulary (and admire yours :up. But it's a potentially misleading one.

b

 

[birdeen's call]

Dimples aren't lines - they're more like dents. They can be temporary - appearing when people laugh or smile. (They can also be permanent - I have one on my chin. And because the skin around the 'crater' is not flat, creases can be caused around them when the shape of the face changes. But this is not the sort of dimple we are talking about.)

I think I do misunderstand the word then. So the dimple is just the "crater proper", not the creases it causes on the face?

But then, what does it mean to "dimple all over"? I don't think Koerg looked like this.

 

[BobK]

I think I do misunderstand the word then. So the dimple is just the "crater proper", not the creases it causes on the face?

But then, what does it mean to "dimple all over"? I don't think Koerg looked like this.

No, indeed! The 'all over' is an intentional exaggeration, rather like 'to bits' in the (Br Eng) expression 'chuffed to bits' (meaning very pleased). Koerg just smiled a lot, forming a number of dimples.

b