fold

English Online Dictionary. What means fold‎? What does fold mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfəʊld/, [ˈfɔʊ(ɫ)d], [ˈfɒʊ(ɫ)d]
• (General American) enPR: fōld, IPA^(key): /foʊld/
• (New Zealand, General Australian) IPA^(key): /faʉld/, [fɒʊ(ɫ)d]
• Homophone: foaled
• Rhymes: -əʊld

Etymology 1

The verb is from Middle English folden, from Old English fealdan, 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.

Verb

fold (third-person singular simple present folds, present participle folding, simple past folded, past participle folded or (obsolete) folden)

1. (transitive) To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
2. (transitive) To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.

3. (transitive) To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it.
5. (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.

6. (intransitive) To become folded; to form folds.

8. (intransitive, informal) To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed.

   Synonyms: buckle, cave, cave in, crumple

10. (intransitive) To give way on a point or in an argument.

    Synonyms: buckle; cave; cave in; crumple

12. (intransitive, poker) To withdraw from betting.

14. (intransitive, by extension) To withdraw or quit in general.
16. (intransitive) To fail, to collapse, to disband.
18. (intransitive, business) Of a company, to cease to trade.

20. (transitive) To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other.

21. (transitive, obsolete) To plait or mat (hair) together.
23. (transitive) To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap.
24. (transitive) To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold).
25. (transitive, figuratively) To cover up, to conceal.
26. (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 (plural folds)

1. An act of folding.

   Synonyms: bending, creasing

   1. Any correct move in origami.
2. That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
   1. A bend or crease.

      Synonyms: bend, crease
   2. A layer, typically of folded or wrapped cloth.

      Synonym: ply
   3. A clasp, embrace.
   4. A coil of a snake’s body.
   5. (obsolete) A wrapping or covering.
   6. One of the doorleaves of a folding door.
3. A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
4. (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.
5. (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.
6. (by extension, web design) The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
7. (functional programming) Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
8. (programming) A section of source code that can be collapsed out of view in an editor to aid readability.
9. One individual part of something described as manifold, twofold, fourfold, etc.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

The noun is from Middle English fold, fald, from Old English fald, falæd, falod (“fold, stall, stable, cattle-pen”), 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.

Noun

fold (plural folds)

2. A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.

   Synonyms: enclosure, pen, penfold, pinfold
3. Any enclosed piece of land belonging to a farm or mill; yard, farmyard.
4. An enclosure or dwelling generally.
5. (collective) A group of sheep or goats, particularly those kept in a given enclosure.

   Synonym: flock

6. (figuratively) Home, family.

   Synonyms: home, family

7. (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
8. (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 present folds, present participle folding, simple past and past participle folded)

1. (transitive) To confine (animals) in a fold, to pen in.
2. (transitive, figuratively) To include in a spiritual ‘flock’ or group of the saved, etc.
3. (transitive) To place sheep on (a piece of land) in order to manure it.

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”).

Noun

fold (uncountable)

2. (dialectal, poetic or obsolete) The Earth; earth; land, country.

Anagrams

• FLOD

Danish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔl/, [fʌlˀ]
• Rhymes: -ɒl

Etymology 1

from Old Norse faldr (“seam”).

Noun

fold c (singular definite folden, plural indefinite folder)

1. fold
2. crease
3. wrinkle

Inflection

Etymology 2

From Old Danish fald, from Middle Low German valde, from Old Saxon *faled, from Proto-Germanic *faludaz.

Noun

fold c (singular definite folden, plural indefinite folde)

1. fold, pen

Inflection

Etymology 3

From Old Norse -faldr.

Noun

fold n

1. multiple

Etymology 4

See folde (“to fold”).

Verb

fold

1. imperative of folde

See also

• fold on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

Icelandic

Etymology

From Old Norse fold.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fɔlt]
• Rhymes: -ɔlt

Noun

fold f (genitive singular foldar, nominative plural foldir)

1. (poetic) earth, ground, land

Middle English

Alternative forms

• fald, feld, vold

Etymology

From Old English fald, falæd, falod, from Proto-West Germanic *falud, from Proto-Germanic *faludaz.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔːld/

Noun

fold (plural foldes)

1. A pen, enclosure, or shelter for domesticated animals.

Descendants

• English: fold
• Scots: fald, fauld
• Yola: vold
• → Welsh: ffald

References

• “fōld, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Norwegian Bokmål

Verb

fold

1. imperative of folde

Old Norse

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *fuldō (“earth, ground; field; the world”).

Noun

fold f

1. (poetic) earth, land; field
   • 9th c., Þjóðólfr of Hvinir, Ynglingatal, verse 5:

   • 900-1100, The Alvíssmál, verses 9 and 10:

Declension

Descendants

• Icelandic: fold
• ⇒ Norwegian:
  • Norwegian Bokmål: Vestfold, Østfold
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: Vestfold, Austfold, Østfold

References

• “fold”, in Geir T. Zoëga (1910) A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press