fold
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: business
card-games
computing
cooking
engineering
food
geography
geology
journalism
lifestyle
mathematics
media
natural-sciences
newspapers
physical-sciences
poker
programming
sciences
web-design
Etymology: 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”).
Cognate with Dutch vouwen, German falten.
The noun is from Middle English folde, falde, itself derived from the verb.
Inflected forms:
form: folds
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: folding
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: folded
pos: verb
tags: past
form: folded
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: folden
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
participle
past
form: folds
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Next, fold the paper over, so the right half is on top of the left half.
The newspaper was folded under his arm.
gloss: To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: If you fold the sheets, they'll fit more easily in the drawer.
The clothes were folded by the housekeeper.
gloss: To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Fold the egg whites into the batter.
8 Jan 2020, Felicity Cloake in The Guardian, How to make the perfect gluten-free chocolate brownies – recipe
if you want to make life really easy for yourself, may I point you in the direction of Sunflour’s recipe, which folds four eggs and 150g ground almonds into 500g chocolate spread.
gloss: To become folded; to form folds.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Cardboard doesn't fold very easily.
gloss: To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed.
pos: verb
tags: informal
intransitive
examples: The chair folded under his enormous weight.
gloss: To give way on a point or in an argument.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
transitive
examples: He folded that point and didn't bring it up again.
He kept saying it was my fault, but when I brought up Sausalito, he folded.
gloss: To withdraw from betting.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: With no hearts in the river and no chance to hit his straight, he folded.
gloss: To withdraw or quit in general.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
intransitive
gloss: To fail, to collapse, to disband.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: Of a company, to cease to trade.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: The company folded after six quarters of negative growth.
gloss: To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He folded his arms in defiance.
gloss: To plait or mat (hair) together.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He put out his arms and folded her to his breast. And for a while she lay there sobbing. He looked at us over her bowed head, with eyes that blinked damply above his quivering nostrils. His mouth was set as steel.
gloss: To cover up, to conceal.
pos: verb
tags: figuratively
transitive
examples: I will not poyſon thee with my attaint, / Nor fold my fault in cleanly coin’d excuſes, / My ſable ground of ſinne I will not paint, / To hide the truth of this falſe nights abuſes.
gloss: To ensnare, to capture.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
gloss: To split (a line of text) across multiple lines, to obey line length limitations.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: An act of folding.
pos: noun
examples: give the bedsheets a fold before putting them in the cupboard.
After two reraises in quick succession, John realised his best option for this poker hand was probably a fold.
gloss: An act of folding.
pos: noun
gloss: That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
pos: noun
examples: […] There sat the Shadow fear’d of man;
Who broke our fair companionship,
⁠And spread his mantle dark and cold;
And wrapt thee formless in the fold, […]
gloss: That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
pos: noun
examples: […] the Ancient Ægyptian Mummies, were ſhrowded in a Number of Folds of Linnen, beſmeared with Gummes, in manner of Seare-Cloth; […]
gloss: That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
pos: noun
examples: […] the weake wanton Cupid Shall from your necke vnlooſe his amorous fould, […]
gloss: That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
pos: noun
gloss: That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
pos: noun
tags: obsolete
gloss: That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops.
pos: noun
gloss: A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
pos: noun
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: The folds are most abrupt to the eastward; to the west, they diminish in boldness, and become gentle undulations
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
examples: Newspaper editors know the importance of putting the most important information “above the fold,” that is, visible when the paper is folded and on the rack.
gloss: 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.
pos: noun
tags: broadly
examples: For example, a story that is "page I, above the fold" is considered very important news. In web page design, the fold signifies the place at which the user has to scroll down to get more information.
gloss: Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
pos: noun
examples: It was Erik Meijer who coined the name hylomorphism to describe a computation that consists of a fold after an unfold. The unfold produces a data structure and the fold consumes it.
gloss: A section of source code that can be collapsed out of view in an editor to aid readability.
pos: noun
gloss: One individual part of something described as manifold, twofold, fourfold, etc.
pos: noun
Antonyms: unfold
Derived words: above the fold
accordion fold
banana fold
below the fold
billfold
Bradley Fold
centerfold
centrefold
check-fold
downfold
efold
epicanthal fold
epicanthic fold
fanfold
fentanyl fold
fent fold
fenty fold
fin fold
fold and thrust belt
foldback
fold boat
foldchange
fold equity
foldless
fold mountain
fold sphere
foldy
headfold
hyperfold
interfold
linenfold
metafold
microfold
Mongoloid fold
mountain fold
nailfold
nanofold
polyfold
prefold
skinfold
superfold
urethral fold
urogenital fold
valley fold
vocal fold
gatefold
Translations:
lang: Afrikaans
word: vou
lang: Albanian
word: palë
lang: Asturian
word: dobladura
lang: Bulgarian
word: сгъване
roman: sgǎvane
lang: Catalan
word: plegament
lang: Finnish
word: taittelu
lang: Finnish
word: taittaminen
lang: French
word: pliage
lang: Friulian
word: pleade
lang: Friulian
word: pleadure
lang: Galician
word: dobradura
lang: German
word: Faltung
lang: German
word: Falzung
lang: German
word: Falten
lang: Greek
word: δίπλωμα
roman: díploma
lang: Hungarian
word: hajtás
lang: Norwegian
word: bretting
lang: Portuguese
word: dobradura
lang: Russian
word: скла́дывание
roman: skládyvanije
lang: Spanish
word: doblamiento
lang: Spanish
word: plisado
lang: Spanish
word: redoblamiento
lang: Spanish
word: plegamiento
lang: Swedish
word: vikning