enfold
Americanverb (used with object)
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enfolds,
present (3rd person singular)
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enfolded,
past participle, past
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enfolding
present participle
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to wrap up; envelop.
to enfold someone in a cloak.
-
to surround as if with folds.
He wished to enfold her in the warmth of his love. What happened is enfolded in mystery.
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to hug or clasp; embrace.
She enfolded him in her arms.
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to form into a fold or folds.
The material of the skirt had been enfolded to form a loose, graceful drape.
verb
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to cover by enclosing
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to embrace
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to form with or as with folds
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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enfoldsimple
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enfoldssimple
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have enfoldedperfect
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has enfoldedperfect
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am enfoldingprogressive
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are enfoldingprogressive
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is enfoldingprogressive
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have been enfoldingperfect progressive
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has been enfoldingperfect progressive
Past
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enfoldedsimple
-
had enfoldedperfect
-
was enfoldingprogressive
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were enfoldingprogressive
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had been enfoldingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of enfold
Explanation
To enfold is to wrap, envelop, or surround. You might enfold a baby in a blanket, or enfold a puppy in your arms. When you enfold something, you either wrap it in a cloth or covering, or you mimic this action literally — with your arms — or figuratively. You could say, for example, that as you walk home at sunset, the night begins to enfold your neighborhood. Or you can say that you love when your grandma enfolds you in a hug. The verb enfold combines the prefix en-, "make or put in" with fold.
Vocabulary lists containing enfold
Vocabulary from Readings 3, Unit 1
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Vocabulary from Readings 1, Unit 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
George’s cluckingly affectionate aunt wants to enfold Hedda in a tradition that would consign her to the role of wife and mother.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 25, 2026
Little did I know this decision would nearly get me arrested, set me on a path across two coasts, instigate community programming, and enfold kindred spirits near and far.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 14, 2023
When you see the power of love and people reaching out from their own pain, how that can really surround you and enfold you and help you.
From BBC ● Jan. 14, 2023
She leads a flexible ensemble of fellow South African musicians, playing original tunes that flock and enfold around open-ended harmonic patterns, pushing deep into a haze.
From New York Times ● Feb. 9, 2018
A huge iridescent bubble seemed to enfold me.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
Cynthia puts her hands out to clasp mine and then enfolds me in her arms.
From BBC ● May 25, 2024
In the early scenes of Mamie and Emmett together in Chicago, you notice the luminous, painterly ambiance in which Chukwu enfolds her characters and the actors playing them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2022
The coinage enfolds this book’s argument: Too many immigrants are being locked up like criminals, and no one — not even criminals — should be treated this way.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 23, 2020
She’s consumed with thoughts of the baby boy she lost just months earlier, music that enfolds fragile vocal lines in subdued, trembling orchestral harmonies.
From New York Times ● Apr. 24, 2016
But Mama’s sweetness enfolds him and coaxes him back.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Four-note and eight-note motifs appear, repeat and fall away; low chords and high countermelodies start to well up about halfway through, enfolded in turn by minimalistic, staccato, tuneful steel drum patterns.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2023
One wishes the film better enfolded Indigenous culture within the narrative: While we do see a few hints, what’s given is not enough.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2022
He set them down on the tiled floor, opened the door of one, reached inside with a dark towel, and enfolded what was inside.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 8, 2022
Tucker Carlson burst through the doors of Charlie Palmer Steak, enfolded in an entourage of producers and assistants, cellphone pressed to his ear.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2022
I stepped from the air-conditioned compartment onto the station platform, and the motherly breath of the suburbs enfolded me.
From "The Bell Jar" by Sylvia Plath
Essential to a wilderness is its capacity to bewilder, and though certain of Church’s colleagues in the Hudson River group, notably Worthington Whittredge, brilliantly captured this dense, enfolding quality, Church seldom did.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
But the bigger challenge is that Green is enfolding stories within stories that have an associative yet indirect connection.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2025
Amid their taut geometries are passages of enfolding softness and effulgent color harmonies — rich reds, pale yellows and blues against his favorite milky lime green.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 27, 2019
He starts out and, in utter, enfolding darkness, he runs.
From The New Yorker ● Oct. 7, 2019
There was a rocking chair for Lee; it received him like an enfolding arm.
From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
