Forms: 1 falæd, falod, falud, 1–2 fald, 3–5 fald(e, (3 south. vold), 4–6 fo(u)ld(e, (5 foolde), 5–6 Sc. fald, 5–9 Sc. fauld, 9 dial. faud, fowd, fowt. [OE. falæd, falod, falud, fald, str. masc., app. corresp. to MLG. vālt, mod.LG. falt, Du. vaalt, EFris. folt enclosed space, dunghill.]
1. A pen or enclosure for domestic animals, esp. sheep.
a. 700. Epinal Gloss., 959. Stabulum, falaed.
a. 800. Corpus Gloss., 310. Bofellum, falud.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John x. 1. Se þe ne gæð æt þam gete into sceapa falde, ac styhþ elles ofer, he is þeof and sceaða.
a. 1100. Gerefa, in Anglia (1886), IX. 260. Ge on felda, ȝe on falde.
c. 1200. Ormin, 3338.
| Till hirdess þær þær þeȝȝ þatt nihht | |
| Biwokenn þeȝȝre faldess. |
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3671 (Cott.).
| Iacob went vn to þe fald | |
| And broght þe bestes forwit tald. |
1382. Wyclif, John x. 1. He that cometh not in by the dore in to the fold of the scheep, but stiȝeth vp by another weye, is nyȝt thef and day thef.
c. 1470. Henry the Minstrel, Wallace, V. 177.
| Twa scheipe thai tuk besid thaim of a fauld, | |
| Ordanyt to soupe in to that seemly hauld. |
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 6. An oxe maye nat endure his warke, to labour all daye, and than to be put to the commons, or before the herdman, and to be set in a folde all nyghte without meate, and go to his labour in the mornynge.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 526.
| Where oft the Flocks without a Leader stray; | |
| Or through continu’d Desarts take their Way; | |
| And, feeding, add the length of Night to Day. | |
| Whole Months they wander, grazing as they go; | |
| Nor Folds, nor hospitable Harbour know. |
1788. Burns, My Hoggie, ii.
| The lee-lang night we watch’d the fauld, | |
| Me and my faithfu’ doggie; | |
| We heard nought but the roaring linn, | |
| Amang the braes sae scroggie. |
1800. Wordsw., Pet Lamb, 47.
| My playmate thou shalt be; and when the wind is cold | |
| Our hearth shall be thy bed, our house shall be thy fold. |
b. fig., esp. in a spiritual sense.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 4640. Under a trouthe in haly kirkes falde.
1541. Barnes, Wks. (1573), 247. You come into the fold of Christ without him, you bring not his voice, but you come with your owne voyce, with your owne statutes, with your owne word.
1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV. (an. 14), 232. To kepe the Wolfe from the folde, that is the Frenche kynge from your Castels and Dominions.
1821. Shelley, Death Napoleon, 3.
| What! leapest thou forth as of old | |
| In the light of thy morning mirth, | |
| The last of the flock of the starry fold? |
1868. G. Duff, Pol. Surv., 182. Although South America is nominally Catholic, there are few parts of the fold which give more anxiety at Rome.
c. The sheep contained in a fold. Also † the movable fold, and the sheep penned in it.
1669. J. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 219. To run the Fold over it, and well settle it, and afterwards to Sow and Harrow it.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Pastorals, VII. 72.
| We fear not more the Winds, and wintry Cold, | |
| Than Streams the Banks, or Wolves the bleating Fold. |
1742. Collins, Eclog., III. 13.
| From early dawn the livelong hours she told, | |
| Till late at silent eve she penn’d the fold. |
d. transf. An enclosure of any kind; a dwelling. † In fere and fold: in prison together.
c. 1435. Torrent of Portugal, 307.
| In a dongon thay ys dym, | |
| Fowyre good erylles sonnys be with hyme, | |
| Ys fet in fere and fold. |
1513. Douglas, Æneis, IX. x. 18. Inclositt amyd ane fald of stakis.
1552. Huloet, Folde, or packe, or pownde to pintle distress, caula.
1847. Tennyson, The Princess, V. 380.
| Far off from men I built a fold for them: | |
| I stored it full of rich memorial: | |
| I fenced it round with gallant institutes, | |
| And biting laws to scare the beasts of prey. |
2. An enclosed piece of ground forming part of a farm, as a farm-yard.
c. 1450. Henryson, Poems (1865), 6.
| I pray to Jesu, every day | |
| Mot eik thair cairis cauld, | |
| That first preissis with thee to play, | |
| Be firth, forrest, or fauld. |
1500–20. Dunbar, Thistle & Rose, 68.
| And that no schouris, nor blastis cawld, | |
| Effray suld flouris nor fowlis on the fold. |
1802. R. Anderson, Cumberld. Ball., 49.
| Auld Margaret in the fauld she sits, | |
| And spins, and sings, and smuiks by fits, | |
| And cries as she had lost her wits— | |
| ‘O this weary, weary warl!’ |
b. transf. The ‘yard’ belonging to a mill, etc.; a cluster of houses standing in such a yard.
1863. Lancash. Fents, New Shirt, 3. A pretty weaver lass had left her loom for the day and had taken her sewing up the ‘fowt.’
1882. Lanc. Gloss., Fold, Fowd, or Fowt, a cluster of houses.
1889. Baring-Gould, Pennycomequicks (1890), 58. The houses in the ‘folds’ were deserted, or were being cleared of their inhabitants.
3. attrib. and Comb., as fold-manure, -stake, -stead; also fold-garth, -yard, farm-yard; fold-mucked a., (ground) manured by folding sheep upon it; fold-pitcher, an iron crowbar used in pitching or setting up hurdles; fold-shore (see quot. 1813); fold-tread v. = FOLD v.2 2; foldwards adv., towards the fold.
1788. W. Marshall, E. Yorksh., Gloss., *Foldgarth; farm-yard.
1876. Whitby Gloss., Faud-garth, the fold-yard.
1829. Bone Manure, Rep. Doncast. Commission, 5. Forty or fifty cart loads of *fold manure.
1641. Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 17. Wee can neaver gette above one Demaine-flatte *fold-mucked in a whole summer.
1832. Q. Jrnl. Agric., III. 648. Setting hurdles is most expeditiously done by the aid of a well made *fold pitcher.
1813. T. Davis, Agric. Wilts, 63. Fossels, or *Fold-shores, the stakes to which the hurdles are fastened with a loose twig-wreath at the top.
1878. Jackson, The Vale of Warminster, in Wilts Archæol. Mag., XVII. 304. The ‘fossels’ means the fold-shores, or the stakes to which the hurdles are shored up.
c. 1475. Pict. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 814. Hic palus, a *foldstake.
1663. MS. Indenture (Barlby, Yorks.). 2 gardens and 2 *foldsteads.
1854. Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., XV. II. 420. [He] also *fold-treads his turnip-land before the seed is drilled.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., I. II. 462.
| Who stood awhile | |
| Hearkening the echoes with a godlike smile, | |
| Then slowly gat him *foldwards. |
1800. Gentl. Mag., II. 1291/2. He was very fond of the bull, and highly valued him; had been feeding him in the *fold-yard with some oats in the straw out of his hands.
1839. Selby, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, I. No. 7. 192. The Conirostræ or Finch tribe, which, subsisting upon seeds and grains, found, if not ample, at least a sufficient quantity of food to support life in the stack and fold-yards where the others were perishing from the effects of hunger and cold.
