Obs. Forms: 1 folde, 3–5 folde, (3 south. volde, 4 foulde), 4– fold. [OE. folde wk.fem. = OLG. folda, ON. fold:—OTeut. *foldôn-, *foldâ, prob. related to *felþu FIELD sb.]

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  1.  a. The surface of the earth: the ground. b. Dry land; the earth, as the dwelling-place of man. In, on, upon fold: on the earth; often as a mere expletive.

2

Beowulf, 1137 (Gr.).

                        Þa wæs winter scacen,
Fþȝer foldan bearm.

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c. 1000.  Judith, 281 (Gr.).

                    He þ lungre ȝefeoll
freorig to foldan.

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c. 1205.  Lay., 1922.

            Al þe feond to-barst
ær he to folde come.
    Ibid., 15730.
Nat ic on folde
What his fader weoren.

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c. 1320.  Sir Tristr., 643.

        Formest þo in fold
  He lete him in þring.

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c. 1340.  Sir Gawayne and the Green Knight, 422. Þe kay fote on þe folde he be-fore sette.

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c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 5381.

                        A kastel ful nobul,
Þe fairest vpon fold.

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c. 1400.  Rowland & O., 418. Then sayde thies Damesels fre one folde.

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a. 1400–50.  Alexander, 2087. Fey falne to þe fold many fers erlis.

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c. 1440.  Bone Flor., 341.

        Many other waturs come thorow the town,
  That fresche are upon folde.

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c. 1450.  Henryson, Poems (1865), 24.

        I was within thir fextie yeiris and sevyn,
  Ane freik on fold, als fair, fresch, als fre,
  Als glaid, als gay, als ying, als yhaip as ye.

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c. 1470.  Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, III. 385. Felle frekis on fold war fallyt wndyr feit.

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  2.  A country, district, land.

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a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 1969 (Gr.). Þa wæs guðhergum be Jordane wera eðelland wide ȝeondsended, folde feondum.

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c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 25.

        Mo ferlyes on þis folde han fallen here oft
þen in any oþer þat I wot, syn þat ilk tyme.

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  3.  Comb., as foldsitter, of the hare: one who sits on the ground.

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a. 1525.  Names Hare, in Rel. Ant., I. 133–4.

        The fitelfot, the foldsittere,
The liȝtt-fot, the fernsittere.

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