fold

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To bend over or double up so that one part lies on another part: fold a sheet of paper.
2. v. To make compact by doubling or bending over parts: folded the laundry; folded the chairs for stacking.
3. v. To bring from an extended to a closed position: The hawk folded its wings.
4. v. To bring from a compact to an extended position; unfold: folded the ironing board down from the wall; folded out the map to see where we were.
5. v. To place together and intertwine: fold one's arms.
6. v. To envelop or clasp; enfold: folded his children to his breast; folded the check into the letter.
7. v. To blend (a light ingredient) into a heavier mixture with a series of gentle turns: folded the beaten egg whites into the batter.
8. v. Informal To discontinue operating; close: They had to fold the company a year after they started it.
9. v. Games To withdraw (one's hand) in defeat, as by laying cards face down on a table.
10. v. Geology To form bends in (a stratum of rock).
11. v. To become folded.
12. v. To be capable of being folded: a bed that folds for easy storage.
13. v. Informal To close, especially for lack of financial success; fail.
14. v. Games To withdraw from a game in defeat.
15. v. Informal To give in; buckle: a team that never folded under pressure.
16. v. Informal To weaken or collapse from exertion.
17. n. The act or an instance of folding.
18. n. A part that has been folded over or against another: the loose folds of the drapery; clothes stacked in neat folds.
19. n. A line or mark made by folding; a crease: tore the paper carefully along the fold.
20. n. A coil or bend, as of rope.
21. n. Chiefly British A hill or dale in undulating country.
22. n. Geology A bend in a stratum of rock.
23. n. Anatomy A crease or ridge apparently formed by folding, as of a membrane; a plica.
24. n. A fenced enclosure for domestic animals, especially sheep.
25. n. A flock of sheep.
26. n. A group of people or institutions bound together by common beliefs and aims: "He is a living testament to the wisdom of admitting lay psychoanalysts into the official fold” ( Jerome Bruner).
27. n. A religious congregation: The priest welcomed new parishioners into the fold.
28. v. To place or keep (sheep, for example) in a fenced enclosure.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To double over upon itself; lay or bring one part of over or toward another by bending; bend over: used of things thin and flexible, or relatively so, as a piece of cloth, a sheet of paper, a stratum of rock, etc.: often with up.
2. To bring together or place over each other, as two correlated parts: as, to fold together the ends of a piece of cloth; to fold one's arms or one's hands.
3. To inclose in a fold or in folds; wrap up; cover up or hide away.
4. To inclose in or as in the arms; embrace.
5. To throw down; overthrow; cause to yield.
6. To become doubled upon itself; become bent so that one part lies over upon another.
7. To infold; embrace.
8. To yield; give way; fail.
9. n. A double or bend in a more or less flexible substance, as cloth; a flexure, especially one so extensive as to bring the parts on either side of the line of bending near together.
10. n. The parts which are brought together by bending or folding, or one of them; specifically, a plait in a garment or in drapery: as, a broad fold of cloth.
11. n. In entomology, a plica or ridge, generally inclined to one side, appearing as if the surface had been folded.
12. n. plural Involved parts of a complex whole; windings: a complex arrangement or constitution; intricacy.
13. n. A clasp; an embrace.
14. n. A sheaf or bundle, as of straw.
15. n. See the adjectives.
16. n. A place of protection or inclosure for domestic animals, usually for sheep.
17. n. Hence A flock of sheep.
18. n. A limit; a boundary.
19. n. A farm-yard.
20. n. The inclosure of a farm-house.
21. To confine, as sheep, in a fold.
22. To confine sheep in a fold.
23. n. The earth; earth.
24. n. A multiplicative suffix, attached to numerals, as in twofold, threefold, fourfold, etc., in algebra n-fold, etc., signifying ‘two, three, four, etc., n, etc., times as much’; so in many-fold, of which the older form, with modified meaning, remains in manifold.
25. n. In geology, a bend in strata varying from a monoclinal or a simple change in the inclination of the beds with a dip still in the same direction as before, through anticlinals and synclinals, which have respectively opposing and converging dips on each side of a central axis, to overturned, collapsed, and fan-shaped folds, with very irregular dips. Folds are believed to be due to the compressive strains in the earth's crust. Compare monoclinal, anticlinal, synclinal, isocline,dome, basin, 9, etc.
26. n. In the Brachiopoda, a term applied with distinctive value to the median elevation of the shell, which is more or less pronounced in all except atrematous genera. Usually the fold extends along the longitudinal axis of the dorsal valve, accompanied by a corresponding sinus on the ventral valve, but in ontogeny this relation is sometimes found to be reversed in early stages, or it may manifest itself in either form only in the final stage of growth.

Wiktionary

1. n. A pen or enclosure for sheep or other domestic animals.
2. n. figuratively Home, family.
3. n. religion, Christian A church congregation, a church, the Christian church as a whole, the flock of Christ.
4. n. obsolete A boundary or limit.
5. v. To confine sheep in a fold.
6. v. transitive To bend (any thin material, such as paper) over so that it comes in contact with itself.
7. v. transitive To make the proper arrangement (in a thin material) by bending.
8. v. intransitive, informal To fall over; to be crushed.
9. v. transitive To enclose within folded arms (see also enfold).
10. v. intransitive To give way on a point or in an argument.
11. v. intransitive, poker To withdraw from betting.
12. v. transitive, cooking To stir gently, with a folding action.
13. v. intransitive, business Of a company, to cease to trade.
14. n. An act of folding.
15. n. A bend or crease.
16. n. Any correct move in origami.
17. n. newspapers 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.
18. n. by extension, web design The division between the part of a web page visible in a web browser window without scrolling; usually the fold.
19. n. geology 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.
20. n. computing, programming In functional programming, any of a family of higher-order functions that process a data structure recursively to build up a value.
21. n. dialectal The Earth; earth; land, country.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. To lap or lay in plaits or folds; to lay one part over another part of; to double
2. v. To double or lay together, as the arms or the hands.
3. v. To inclose within folds or plaitings; to envelop; to infold; to clasp; to embrace.
4. v. To cover or wrap up; to conceal.
5. v. To become folded, plaited, or doubled; to close over another of the same kind; to double together.
6. n. A doubling,esp. of any flexible substance; a part laid over on another part; a plait; a plication.
7. n. Times or repetitions; -- used with numerals, chiefly in composition, to denote multiplication or increase in a geometrical ratio, the doubling, tripling, etc., of anything.
8. n. That which is folded together, or which infolds or envelops; embrace.
9. n. An inclosure for sheep; a sheep pen.
10. n. A flock of sheep; figuratively, the Church or a church.
11. n. obsolete A boundary; a limit.
12. v. To confine in a fold, as sheep.
13. v. rare To confine sheep in a fold.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a pen for sheep
2. n. a folded part (as in skin or muscle)
3. v. incorporate a food ingredient into a mixture by repeatedly turning it over without stirring or beating
4. v. confine in a fold, like sheep
5. v. bend or lay so that one part covers the other
6. v. cease to operate or cause to cease operating
7. v. become folded or folded up
8. n. a group of people who adhere to a common faith and habitually attend a given church
9. n. the act of folding
10. n. an angular or rounded shape made by folding
11. n. a group of sheep or goats
12. n. a geological process that causes a bend in a stratum of rock