• (RP) IPA: /ˈfəʊld/, [ˈfɔʊ(ɫ)d], [ˈfɒʊ(ɫ)d]
• (America) enPR: fōld, IPA: /foʊld/
• (New Zealand, Australia) IPA: /faʉld/, [fɒʊ(ɫ)d]

The verb is from Middle English folden, from Old English fealdan, from Proto-Germanic *falþaną, from Proto-Indo-European *pel-.

fold (folds, present participle folding; simple past and past participle folded)

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.

   If you fold the sheets, they'll fit more easily in the drawer.

3. (transitive) To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it.
4. (transitive, cooking) To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid.

   Fold the egg whites into the batter.

   • 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.

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

   Cardboard doesn't fold very easily.

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

   Synonyms: buckle#English:_collapse or crumple physically, cave#Verb, cave in#Verb, crumple#Verb

   The chair folded under his enormous weight.

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

   Synonyms: buckle#English:_give way, give up, surrender, cave#Verb, cave in#Verb, crumple#Verb

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

   With no hearts in the river and no chance to hit his straight, he folded.

9. (intransitive, by extension) To withdraw or quit in general.
10. (intransitive) To fail, to collapse, to disband.
11. (intransitive, business) Of a company, to cease to trade.

    The company folded after six quarters of negative growth.

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

    He folded his arms in defiance.

13. (transitive, obsolete) To plait or mat (hair) together.
14. (transitive) To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap.
15. (transitive) To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold).
    • 1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 21, in Dracula, New York, N.Y.: Modern Library, →OCLC ↗:

      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.

16. (transitive, figuratively) To cover up, to conceal.
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, Lucrece (First Quarto), London: […] Richard Field, for Iohn Harrison, […], →OCLC ↗:

      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.

17. (transitive, obsolete) To ensnare, to capture.

• (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

• unfold

• French: plier
• German: falten, falzen
• Italian: piegare
• Portuguese: dobrar
• Russian: перегиба́ть
• Spanish: plegar, doblar

• French: plier
• German: zusammenlegen, zusammenfalten, falten
• Italian: piegare
• Portuguese: dobrar
• Russian: скла́дывать
• Spanish: plegar

• French: incorporer délicatement
• German: unterheben
• Italian: amalgamare, sciogliere
• Spanish: incorporar

• French: s’effondrer, s’écrouler
• German: in sich zusammenfallen, zusammenkrachen (colloquial), zusammenbrechen
• Spanish: doblarse, derribarse

• French: se replier, laisser tomber, concéder, s'écraser (familiar)
• German: nachgeben, sich geschlagen geben
• Italian: cedere, lasciare cadere, concedere, darla vinta
• Portuguese: ceder
• Russian: уступа́ть
• Spanish: ceder

• French: se coucher
• German: aussteigen
• Italian: passare
• Portuguese: passar
• Russian: фолдить
• Spanish: pasar, abandonar

• French: plier bagage
• Italian: chiudere, cessare

fold (plural folds)

1. An act of folding.

   Synonyms: bending, creasing

   give the bedsheets a fold before putting them in the cupboard.

   After two reraises in quick succession, John realised his best option was probably a fold.

   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

      • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC ↗, Canto XXII, page 37 ↗:

        […] 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, […]

   2. A layer, typically of folded or wrapped cloth.

      Synonyms: ply

      • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “VIII. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC ↗, paragraph 771, page 194 ↗:

        […] the Ancient Ægyptian Mummies, were ſhrowded in a Number of Folds of Linnen, beſmeared with Gummes, in manner of Seare-Cloth; […]

   3. A clasp, embrace.
      • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act III, scene iii]:

        […] the weake wanton Cupid Shall from your necke vnlooſe his amorous fould, […]

   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.
   • 1863, James Dwight Dana, Manual of Geology:

     The folds are most abrupt to the eastward; to the west, they diminish in boldness, and become gentle undulations

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.

• French: pliage
• German: Faltung, Falzung, Falten
• Portuguese: dobradura
• Russian: скла́дывание
• Spanish: doblamiento

• French: pli
• German: Faltung, Faltmanöver
• Portuguese: dobra

• French: pli, pliure
• German: Falz, Falte
• Italian: piega
• Portuguese: dobra
• Russian: скла́дка
• Spanish: dobladura, pliegue, doblez

• German: Falte

The noun is from Middle English fold, fald, from Old English fald, falæd, falod ("fold, stall, stable, cattle-pen"), from Proto-Germanic *faludaz.

The verb is from Late Middle English fooldyn, itself derived from the noun.

fold (plural folds)

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

   Synonyms: enclosure, pen, penfold, pinfold

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     Leaps o're the fence with ease into the fold.

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

   Synonyms: flock

5. (figuratively) Home, family.

   Synonyms: home, family

6. (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

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, John 10:16 ↗:

     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.

7. (figuratively) A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together.

   Synonyms: cohort, community

• French: parc à moutons, bergerie
• German: Schafspferch
• Russian: коша́ра
• Spanish: corral, cerca, aprisco, redil

• German: Schoß
• Spanish: cuna

• French: bercail, sein de l'Église
• German: Gemeinde
• Russian: па́ства

fold (folds, present participle folding; simple past and past participle folded)

1. (transitive) To confine (animals) in a fold, to pen in.
   • 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC ↗; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC ↗:

     The star that bids the shepherd fold,
     Now the top of heaven doth hold.

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.

From Middle English folde, from Old English folde, from Proto-Germanic *fuldǭ, *fuldō.

fold (uncountable)

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