Definition

To pucker is to become wrinkled or constricted or to contract into folds or wrinkles.

Above: Vein and leaf puckering on kava (Piper methysticum), one of the possible symptoms of kava dieback disease, caused by cucumber mosaic virus (CMV).

Etymology. 1598, possibly a frequentative form of pock, dialectal variant of poke "bag, sack," which would give it the same notion as in to purse the lips.