FOLD, n. In the miserable nomenclature of those outlying dark corners of the universe beyond the boundaries of the Pacific Slope, a sheep corral. The wretched barbarians infesting those remote dependencies have also the bad taste to call a band of sheep a “flock” and a sheepherder a “shepherd,” besides being linguistically disgusting in a reasonless multitude of other ways. In ecclesiastical affairs, the fold means the church.
By plain analogy we’re told
Why first the church was called the fold:
Into the fold the sheep are steered
There guarded from the wolf and — sheared.