fold

Fetched 2026-10-28 (live).

Datamuse reports no synonyms or antonyms for this word.

Verb

To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
- Next, fold the paper over, so the right half is on top of the left half.
- The newspaper was folded under his arm.
To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.
- If you fold the sheets, they'll fit more easily in the drawer.
- The clothes were folded by the housekeeper.
To draw or coil (one’s arms, a snake’s body, etc.) around something so as to enclose or embrace it.
To stir (semisolid ingredients) gently, with an action as if folding over a solid.
- Fold the egg whites into the batter.
To become folded; to form folds.
- Cardboard doesn't fold very easily.
To fall over; to collapse or give way; to be crushed.
- The chair folded under his enormous weight.
To give way on a point or in an argument.
- 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.
To withdraw from betting.
To abandon completing one's hand and play in a defensive manner to avoid dealing in.
- With no hearts in the river and no chance to hit his straight, he folded.
To withdraw or quit in general.
To fail, to collapse, to disband.
Of a company, to cease to trade.
- The company folded after six quarters of negative growth.
To double or lay together (one’s arms, hands, wings, etc.) so as to overlap with each other.
- He folded his arms in defiance.
To plait or mat (hair) together.
To enclose in a fold of material, to swathe, wrap up, cover, enwrap.
To enclose within folded arms, to clasp, to embrace (see also enfold).
To cover up, to conceal.
To ensnare, to capture.
To split (a line of text) across multiple lines, to obey line length limitations.

Noun

An act of folding.
- 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.
Any correct move in origami.
That which is folded together, or which enfolds or envelops. A bend or crease.
A bend or crease.
A layer, such as of folded or wrapped cloth.
A clasp, embrace.
A coil of a snake’s body.
One of the doorleaves of a folding door.
A gentle curve of the ground; gentle hill or valley.
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. The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
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.
A wrapping or covering.
Any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
A section of source code that can be collapsed out of view in an editor to aid readability.
One individual part of something described as manifold, twofold, fourfold, etc.

Noun

A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
Any enclosed piece of land belonging to a farm or mill; yard, farmyard.
An enclosure or dwelling generally.
A group of sheep or goats, particularly those kept in a given enclosure.
Home, family.
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.
A group of people with shared ideas or goals or who live or work together.

Verb

To confine (animals) in a fold, to pen in.
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.

Noun

The Earth; earth; land; country.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.