fold.
To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
Meaning & usage
To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
Next, fold the paper over, so the right half is on top of the left half.
The newspaper was folded under his arm.
To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.
If you fold the sheets, they'll fit more easily in the drawer.
The clothes were folded by the housekeeper.
To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it.
To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid.
Fold the egg whites into the batter.
To become folded; to form folds.
Cardboard doesn't fold very easily.
To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed.
The chair folded under his enormous weight.
To give way on a point or in an argument.
He folded that point and didn't bring it up again.
He kept saying it was my fault, but when I brought up Sausalito, he folded.
To withdraw from betting.
With no hearts in the river and no chance to hit his straight, he folded.
To withdraw or quit in general.
To fail, to collapse, to disband.
Of a company, to cease to trade.
The company folded after six quarters of negative growth.
To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other.
He folded his arms in defiance.
To plait or mat (hair) together.
To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap.
To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold).
To cover up, to conceal.
To ensnare, to capture.
To split (a line of text) across multiple lines, to obey line length limitations.
Where this word comes from
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”). Cognate with Dutch vouwen, German falten. The noun is from Middle English folde, falde, itself derived from the verb.
An act of folding.
give the bedsheets a fold before putting them in the cupboard.
After two reraises in quick succession, John realised his best option for this poker hand was probably a fold.
An act of folding. Any correct move in origami.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A bend or crease.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A layer, such as of of folded or wrapped cloth.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A clasp, embrace.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A coil of a snake’s body.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. One of the doorleaves of a folding door.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. 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.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. 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. The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. 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.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A wrapping or covering.
Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
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.
Where this word comes from
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”). Cognate with Dutch vouwen, German falten. The noun is from Middle English folde, falde, itself derived from the verb.
A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
Any enclosed piece of land belonging to a farm or mill; yard, farmyard.
An enclosure or dwelling generally.
A group of sheep or goats, particularly those kept in a given enclosure.
Home, family.
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.
A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together.
Where this word comes from
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.
To confine (animals) in a fold, to pen in.
To include in a spiritual ‘flock’ or group of the saved, etc.
To place sheep on (a piece of land) in order to manure it.
Where this word comes from
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.
The Earth; earth; land; country.
Where this word comes from
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”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.