fold

Meaning

Verb

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.
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) To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid.
5. (intransitive) To become folded; to form folds.
6. (informal, intransitive) To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed.
7. (intransitive) To give way on a point or in an argument.
8. (intransitive) To withdraw from betting.
9. (broadly, intransitive) To withdraw or quit in general.
10. (intransitive) To fail, to collapse, to disband.
11. (intransitive) Of a company, to cease to trade.
12. (transitive) To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other.
13. (obsolete, transitive) 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).
16. (figuratively, transitive) To cover up, to conceal.
17. (obsolete, transitive) To ensnare, to capture.
18. (transitive) To split (a line of text) across multiple lines, to obey line length limitations.

Noun

1. An act of folding.
2. An act of folding.
3. That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
4. That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
5. That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
6. That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
7. (obsolete) That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
8. That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
9. A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. (broadly) The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
13. Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
14. A section of source code that can be collapsed out of view in an editor to aid readability.
15. One individual part of something described as manifold, twofold, fourfold, etc.

Noun

1. A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
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.
5. (figuratively) Home, family.
6. 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.
7. (figuratively) A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together.

Noun

The Earth; earth; land, country.

Opposite of

unfold

Synonyms

bend

crease

pleat

wrinkle

fold up

pen

🖊️

plait

tuck

double

folding

hem

ply

close

wrap

pucker

plica

crumple

roll

roll up

curve

crimp

break

flexure

close up

shut down

close down

plication

wrap up

lap

corrugation

stack up

flock

flex

sheepcote

sheepfold

turn up

cross

collapse

fail

coil

congregation

faithful

enclosure

ruffle

clasp

bind

layer

line

cote

mix

Translations

plier

piegare

doblar

falten

piega

Falte

pli

plegar

pliegue

dobrar

vouwen

διπλώνω

dobra

zusammenlegen

plegar

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈfəʊld/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: folden

Inherited from Old English: fealdan

Inherited from Middle English: folde

Inherited from Middle English: fold

Inherited from Old English: fald

Cognate with Scots: fald

Cognate with Middle Low German: valt

Cognate with Danish: fold

Cognate with Swedish: fålla

Inherited from Middle English: fooldyn

In summary

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”).
The noun is from Middle English folde, falde, itself derived from the verb.

Sentences

The tympanum and supratympanic fold are distinct .