fold
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfəʊld/
ipa: [ˈfɔʊ(ɫ)d]
ipa: [ˈfɒʊ(ɫ)d]
enpr: fōld
ipa: /foʊld/
ipa: /fəʉld/
ipa: [fəʉɫd]
ipa: /faʉld/
ipa: [faʉɫd]
homophone: foaled
rhymes: -əʊld
Forms: form: folds
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.
Senses: examples: text: Leaps o're the fence with ease into the fold.
ref: 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:
text: “I came down like a wolf on the fold, didn’t I ? Why didn’t I telephone ? Strategy, my dear boy, strategy. This is a surprise attack, and I’d no wish that the garrison, forewarned, should escape. …”
ref: 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad:
synonyms: enclosure
pen
penfold
pinfold
glosses: A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
glosses: Any enclosed piece of land belonging to a farm or mill; yard, farmyard.
glosses: An enclosure or dwelling generally.
synonyms: flock
glosses: A group of sheep or goats, particularly those kept in a given enclosure.
synonyms: home
family
glosses: Home, family.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 10:16:
topics: Christianity
synonyms: congregation
flock
glosses: 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.
examples: text: Having suffered the loss of Rooney just as he had returned to the fold, Moyes' mood will not have improved as Liverpool took the lead in the third minute.
ref: 2013 September 1, Phil McNulty, BBC Sport:
text: Most recently, in his ambitious 2015 book, Leaving the Jewish Fold, Endelman significantly enlarges his purview in both time and space to broadly survey the phenomenon of Jewish conversion from early medieval to postmodern times […]
ref: 2021, Angela Kuttner Botelho, German Jews and the Persistence of Jewish Identity in Conversion: Writing the Jewish Self, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, →ISBN, page 37:
text: In a first phase of foreign policy, after 1945, my country sought to regain former enemies’ trust. We are forever grateful that they extended their hand to us, readmitting us into the global fold.
ref: 2023 July 6, Annalena Baerbock, “Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced us in Germany to think differently about our role in the world”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
text: “I hope that eventually Elon comes back into the fold. Maybe that’s not possible now because he’s gone so nuclear,” the vice-president said.
ref: 2025 June 7, Edward Helmore, quoting JD Vance, “Trump warns Musk of ‘very serious consequences’ if he backs Democrats”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
synonyms: cohort
community
glosses: A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together.
Derived terms: deerfold
foldward
foldwards
gatefold
lambfold
like a wolf on the fold
sheepfold