What does "fold" mean?
Fold: 2. To double or lay together, as the arms or the hands; as, he folds his arms in despair.
Additional senses
- 2.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.
- 3.To cover or wrap up; to conceal. Nor fold my fault in cleanly coined excuses. Shak.
- 4.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.
- 5.1. 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.
- 6.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.
- 7.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.
- 8.An inclosure for sheep; a sheep pen. Leaps o'er the fence with ease into the fold. Milton.
- 9.A flock of sheep; figuratively, the Church or a church; as, Christ's fold. There shall be one fold and one shepherd. John x.
- 10.The very whitest lamb in all my fold. Tennyson.
- 11.A boundary; a limit. [Obs.] Creech. Fold yard, an inclosure for sheep or cattle.
- 12.To confine in a fold, as sheep.
- 13.To confine sheep in a fold. [R.] The star that bids the shepherd fold. Milton.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00