Fold
Fold verb - To lay one part over or against another part of.
Usage example: fold the blanket so that it will fit inside the trunk
Open
Open verb - To arrange the parts of (something) over a wider area.
Usage example: when we got too close, the cardinal opened its wings and flew to a higher branch
Common collocations
Both words in one sentence
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On the other hand, any camper who has actually had a reason to open one has discovered the joys of trying to fold it back into that size (It's not possible, by the way, not without machines)
Source: Impossibly Compact Folding - Sadly, Beast Machines had a step up in engineering, with intricate, inventive transformations; Beast Wars figures in general were either "stand up and fold out limbs" or "crack open shell and fold entire robot out with dangling animal parts" with a few exceptions.
Source: Growing The Beard / Toys -
The machine spits out flat cardboard pieces which the worker has to fold into a five sided cube (with an open end to fill it with whatever).
Source: Assembly Line Fast-Forward
Cite this Source
Open and Fold. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 15, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/fold/open
Fold & Open. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/fold/open>.
Open or Fold. 2016. Accessed August 15, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/fold/open.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "fold" and "open" have occurred on timeline