(transitive) To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
(transitive) To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.
(transitive) To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it.
(transitive, cooking) To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid.
8 Jan 2020, Felicity Cloake in The Guardian, How to make the perfect gluten-free chocolate brownies – recipe
if you want to make life really easy for yourself, may I point you in the direction of Sunflour’s recipe, which folds four eggs and 150g ground almonds into 500g chocolate spread.
(intransitive) To become folded; to form folds.
(intransitive, informal) To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed.
Synonyms:buckle, cave, cave in, crumple
(intransitive) To give way on a point or in an argument.
Synonyms:buckle; cave; cave in; crumple
(intransitive, poker) To withdraw from betting.
(intransitive, by extension) To withdraw or quit in general.
(intransitive) To fail, to collapse, to disband.
(intransitive, business) Of a company, to cease to trade.
(transitive) To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other.
(transitive, obsolete) To plait or mat (hair) together.
(transitive) To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap.
(transitive) To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold).
(transitive, figuratively) To cover up, to conceal.
(transitive, obsolete) To ensnare, to capture.
Synonyms
(bend (thin material) over):bend, crease
(fall over):fall over
(give way on a point or in an argument):concede, give in, give way, yield
Antonyms
unfold
Derived terms
Descendants
⇒ Czech: foldovat
Translations
Noun
fold (pluralfolds)
An act of folding.
Synonyms:bending, creasing
Any correct move in origami.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
A bend or crease.
Synonyms:bend, crease
A layer, typically of folded or wrapped cloth.
Synonym:ply
A clasp, embrace.
A coil of a snake’s body.
(obsolete) A wrapping or covering.
One of the doorleaves of a folding door.
A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
(geology) The bending or curving of one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, as a result of plastic (i.e. permanent) deformation.
(newspapers) The division between the top and bottom halves of a broadsheet: headlines above the fold will be readable in a newsstand display; usually the fold.
(by extension, web design) The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
(functional programming) Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
(programming) A section of source code that can be collapsed out of view in an editor to aid readability.
One individual part of something described as manifold, twofold, fourfold, etc.
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
The noun is from Middle Englishfold, fald, from Old Englishfald, falæd, falod(“fold, stall, stable, cattle-pen”), from Proto-Germanic*faludaz(“enclosure”). Akin to Scotsfald, fauld(“an enclosure for livestock”), Dutch vaalt(“dung heap”), Middle Low Germanvalt, vālt(“an inclosed space, a yard”), Danishfold(“pen for herbivorous livestock”), Swedishfålla(“corral, pen, pound”).
The verb is from Late Middle Englishfooldyn, itself derived from the noun.
Noun
fold (pluralfolds)
A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
Synonyms:enclosure, pen, penfold, pinfold
Any enclosed piece of land belonging to a farm or mill; yard, farmyard.
An enclosure or dwelling generally.
(collective) A group of sheep or goats, particularly those kept in a given enclosure.
Synonym:flock
(figuratively) Home, family.
Synonyms:home, family
(Christianity) A church congregation, a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church; also, the Christian church as a whole, the flock of Christ.
Synonyms:congregation, flock
(figuratively) A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together.
Synonyms:cohort, community
Translations
Verb
fold (third-person singular simple presentfolds, present participlefolding, simple past and past participlefolded)
(transitive) To confine (animals) in a fold, to pen in.
(transitive, figuratively) To include in a spiritual ‘flock’ or group of the saved, etc.
(transitive) To place sheep on (a piece of land) in order to manure it.
Etymology 3
From Middle Englishfolde, from Old Englishfolde(“earth, land, country, district, region, territory, ground, soil, clay”), from Proto-Germanic*fuldǭ, *fuldō(“earth, ground; field; the world”). Cognate with Old Norsefold(“earth, land, field”), Norwegian and Icelandicfold(“land, earth, meadow”).
Noun
fold (uncountable)
(dialectal, poetic or obsolete) The Earth; earth; land, country.