What does "fold" mean?
An act of folding.
Fold
/ˈfəʊld/ noun, verb, slang
noun, verb, slang ·Top 500 ·Elementary level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: An act of folding.
- Grammar: fold is listed as noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: bend, crease, folding, alley.
- Useful contrasts: sprawling, beats, clothesline.
- Usage evidence: With great effort she managed to fold one more.
How to use "fold"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "fold" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
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- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "fold" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "fold" as the right word for your sentence.
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Compare nearby meanings
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Definition decision workflow
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Final meaning check
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Definitions
Noun
- 1 An act of folding.
"give the bedsheets a fold before putting them in the cupboard."
- 2 A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
"Leaps o're the fence with ease into the fold."
- 3 The Earth; earth; land, country. dialectal, obsolete, poetic, uncountable
- 4 the act of folding wordnet
- 5 An act of folding.; Any correct move in origami.
Show 25 more definitions
- 6 Any enclosed piece of land belonging to a farm or mill; yard, farmyard.
- 7 a pen for sheep wordnet
- 8 That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.; A bend or crease.
"[…] There sat the Shadow fear’d of man; Who broke our fair companionship, And spread his mantle dark and cold; And wrapt thee formless in the fold, […]"
- 9 An enclosure or dwelling generally.
- 10 a folded part (as in skin or muscle) wordnet
- 11 That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.; A layer, typically of folded or wrapped cloth.
"[…] the Ancient Ægyptian Mummies, were ſhrowded in a Number of Folds of Linnen, beſmeared with Gummes, in manner of Seare-Cloth; […]"
- 12 A group of sheep or goats, particularly those kept in a given enclosure. collective
- 13 a group of sheep or goats wordnet
- 14 That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.; A clasp, embrace.
"[…] the weake wanton Cupid Shall from your necke vnlooſe his amorous fould, […]"
- 15 Home, family. figuratively
- 16 a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church wordnet
- 17 That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.; A coil of a snake’s body.
- 18 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.
"And other sheepe I haue, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall heare my voyce; and there shall be one fold, and one shepheard."
- 19 a geological process that causes a bend in a stratum of rock wordnet
- 20 That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.; A wrapping or covering. obsolete
- 21 A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together. figuratively
"Having suffered the loss of Rooney just as he had returned to the fold, Moyes' mood will not have improved as Liverpool took the lead in the third minute."
- 22 an angular or rounded shape made by folding wordnet
- 23 That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.; One of the doorleaves of a folding door.
- 24 A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
- 25 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.
"The folds are most abrupt to the eastward; to the west, they diminish in boldness, and become gentle undulations"
- 26 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.
"Newspaper editors know the importance of putting the most important information “above the fold,” that is, visible when the paper is folded and on the rack."
- 27 The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold. broadly
"For example, a story that is "page I, above the fold" is considered very important news. In web page design, the fold signifies the place at which the user has to scroll down to get more information."
- 28 Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
"It was Erik Meijer who coined the name hylomorphism to describe a computation that consists of a fold after an unfold. The unfold produces a data structure and the fold consumes it."
- 29 A section of source code that can be collapsed out of view in an editor to aid readability.
- 30 One individual part of something described as manifold, twofold, fourfold, etc.
Verb
- 1 To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself. transitive
- 2 To confine (animals) in a fold, to pen in. transitive
"The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven doth hold."
- 3 incorporate a food ingredient into a mixture by repeatedly turning it over without stirring or beating wordnet
- 4 To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending. transitive
"If you fold the sheets, they'll fit more easily in the drawer."
- 5 To include in a spiritual ‘flock’ or group of the saved, etc. figuratively, transitive
Show 21 more definitions
- 6 become folded or folded up wordnet
- 7 To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it. transitive
- 8 To place sheep on (a piece of land) in order to manure it. transitive
- 9 bend or lay so that one part covers the other wordnet
- 10 To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid. transitive
"Fold the egg whites into the batter."
- 11 confine in a fold, like sheep wordnet
- 12 To become folded; to form folds. intransitive
"Cardboard doesn't fold very easily."
- 13 cease to operate or cause to cease operating wordnet
- 14 To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed. informal, intransitive
"The chair folded under his enormous weight."
- 15 To give way on a point or in an argument. intransitive
- 16 To withdraw from betting. intransitive
"With no hearts in the river and no chance to hit his straight, he folded."
- 17 To withdraw or quit in general. broadly, intransitive
- 18 To fail, to collapse, to disband. intransitive
- 19 Of a company, to cease to trade. intransitive
"The company folded after six quarters of negative growth."
- 20 To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other. transitive
"He folded his arms in defiance."
- 21 To plait or mat (hair) together. obsolete, transitive
- 22 To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap. transitive
- 23 To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold). transitive
"He put out his arms and folded her to his breast. And for a while she lay there sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrils. His mouth was set as steel."
- 24 To cover up, to conceal. figuratively, transitive
"I will not poyſon thee with my attaint, / Nor fold my fault in cleanly coin’d excuſes, / My ſable ground of ſinne I will not paint, / To hide the truth of this falſe nights abuſes."
- 25 To ensnare, to capture. obsolete, transitive
- 26 To split (a line of text) across multiple lines, to obey line length limitations. transitive
Antonyms
Example
"With great effort she managed to fold one more."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "fold"?
Common synonyms include: bend, crease, folding, alley, alveolation, alveolus.
How do you use "fold" in a sentence?
With great effort she managed to fold one more.
How do you pronounce "fold"?
Pronounced /ˈfəʊld/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
The verb is from Middle English folden, from Old English fealdan, from Proto-West Germanic *falþan, from Proto-Germanic *falþaną (“to fold”), from Proto-Indo-European *pel- (“to fold”). The noun is from Middle English folde, falde, itself derived from the verb.
Etymology 2
The noun is from Middle English fold, fald, from Old English fald, falæd, falod (“fold, stall, stable, cattle-pen”), from Proto-West Germanic *falud, from Proto-Germanic *faludaz (“enclosure”). Akin to Scots fald, fauld (“an enclosure for livestock”), Dutch vaalt (“dung heap”), Middle Low German valt, vālt (“an inclosed space, a yard”), Danish fold (“pen for herbivorous livestock”), Swedish fålla (“corral, pen, pound”). The verb is from Late Middle English fooldyn, itself derived from the noun.
Etymology 3
From Middle English folde, from Old English folde (“earth, land, country, district, region, territory, ground, soil, clay”), from Proto-Germanic *fuldǭ, *fuldō (“earth, ground; field; the world”). Cognate with Old Norse fold (“earth, land, field”), Norwegian and Icelandic fold (“land, earth, meadow”).