Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Fold

Fold (fōld), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Folded; p. pr. & vb. n. Folding.] [OE. folden, falden, AS. fealdan; akin to OHG. faltan, faldan, G. falten, Icel. falda, Dan. folde, Sw. fålla, Goth. falþan, cf. Gr. δι- πλάσιος twofold, Skr. puṭa a fold. Cf. Fauteuil.] 1. To lap or lay in plaits or folds; to lay one part over another part of; to double; as, to fold cloth; to fold a letter. [1913 Webster]

As a vesture shalt thou fold them up. Heb. i. 12.

2. To double or lay together, as the arms or the hands; as, he folds his arms in despair.

3. To inclose within folds or plaitings; to envelop; to infold; to clasp; to embrace.

A face folded in sorrow. J. Webster.

We will descend and fold him in our arms. Shak.

4. To cover or wrap up; to conceal.

Nor fold my fault in cleanly coined excuses. Shak.

Fold, v. i. To become folded, plaited, or doubled; to close over another of the same kind; to double together; as, the leaves of the door fold. 1 Kings vi. 34.

Fold, n. [From Fold, v. In sense 2 AS. -feald, akin to fealdan to fold.] 1. A doubling,esp. of any flexible substance; a part laid over on another part; a plait; a plication.

Mummies . . . shrouded in a number of folds of linen. Bacon.

Folds are most common in the rocks of mountainous regions. J. D. Dana.

2. Times or repetitions; — used with numerals, chiefly in composition, to denote multiplication or increase in a geometrical ratio, the doubling, tripling, etc., of anything; as, fourfold, four times, increased in a quadruple ratio, multiplied by four.

3. That which is folded together, or which infolds or envelops; embrace.

Shall from your neck unloose his amorous fold. Shak.

Fold net, a kind of net used in catching birds.

Fold, n. [OE. fald, fold, AS. fald, falod.] 1. An inclosure for sheep; a sheep pen.

Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold. Milton.

2. A flock of sheep; figuratively, the Church or a church; as, Christ's fold.

There shall be one fold and one shepherd. John x. 16.

The very whitest lamb in all my fold. Tennyson.

3. A boundary; a limit. [Obs.] Creech.

Fold yard, an inclosure for sheep or cattle.

Fold, v. t. To confine in a fold, as sheep.

Fold, v. i. To confine sheep in a fold. [R.]

The star that bids the shepherd fold. Milton.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.