dimple

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small natural hollow in the cheek or chin, especially one visible when a person smiles

   A dimple appeared in his left cheek when he laughed.

2. 2
   noun

   a small depression in any surface

   Each dimple on a golf ball helps control its flight.

3. 3
   verb

   to make or develop small hollows in a surface

   Light raindrops began to dimple the surface of the lake.

From Middle English dimple or dimpel, probably from a Germanic word for a small hollow or pool. The facial sense and the broader sense of a shallow depression both preserve the idea of a small sunken place.

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