Dimple

Dimple (pronounced dim-puhl)

(1) A small (permanent or transient) natural indentation in the chin, cheek, or sacral region, probably due to some developmental fault in the subcutaneous connective tissue or in underlying bone (but can manifest as a result of trauma or the contraction of scar tissue).

(2) Any similar slight depression.

(3) To mark with or as if with dimples; to produce dimples in.

(4) In metalworking, to dent a metal sheet so as to permit use of bolts or rivets with countersunk heads; to mark a metal object with a drill point as a guide for further drilling.

(5) In glassmaking, a bubble or dent in glass.

1350-1400: From the Middle English dimple & dympull (natural transient small dent in some soft part of the human body) from the Old English dympel & dyppan (a dip, a hollow in the trail or road), probably from the Proto-Germanic dumpila- (sink-hole), probably related to the Proto-Germanic dumpilaz & dumpa- (hole, hollow, pit), from the primitive Indo-European dhewb- (deep, hollow), a construct of the dialectal dump (deep hole or pool) +‎ -le (the diminutive suffix).  It was akin to the Old High German tumphilo (pool) from whence German gained Tümpel (pool), the Middle Low German dümpelen and the Dutch dompelen (to plunge).

The noun was the original form, describing a small dent in some part of a person's surface soft tissue (skin), applied especially to that produced in the cheek of a young person by the act of smiling and was always associated with youthful attractiveness rather than being some sort of flaw although it was all based on the less attractive "pothole", hence the link with words of Germanic origin which tend to this meaning.  From the Proto-Germanic dumpilaz also came other forms meaning "small pit, little pool" including the German Tümpel (pool), the Middle Low German dümpelen and the Dutch dompelen (to plunge).  The verb dates from the 1570s (implied in dimpled), as the intransitive, "form dimples", derived from the noun and the transitive sense "mark with dimples" emerged circa 1600.

Use as a proper noun actually pre-dates the descriptor of the physical characteristic, Dimple as a place name noted circa 1200 and as a surname from the late thirteenth century.  The extension of the meaning to a generalized "slight indentation or impression in any surface" is from the 1630s.  The related noun philtrum (dimple in the middle of the upper lip), first noted 1703, is medical Latin, from a Latinized form of Greek philtron, (literally "love charm").  Dimple is a noun; the verbs (used with object) are dimpling & dimpled (which is also an adjective).  Synonyms (applied to non-human dimples) include divot, hollow, concavity, cleft, dent, pit & depression.

Young lady with dimple.  A dimple will always draw the eye.