fold
noun
- sharp bend or curve in a material such that it lays over itself
verb
- bend something on itself
- reduce to a simple form
- replace with an alternate form
- to fail completely
- mix ingredients gently
- fold hands
- stop playing cards
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈfəʊld/ / [ˈfɒʊɫd] / /ˈfɒld/
noun
Etymology: 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”).
- The Earth; earth; land, country.
verb
Etymology: 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.
“The star that bids the shepherd fold, Now the top of heaven doth hold.”
“On the same day [Midsummer Eve] people in the Isle of Man were wont to light fires to the windward of every field, so that the smoke might pass over the corn; and they folded their cattle and carried blazing furze or gorse round them several times.”
- 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.