return to the fold

return to the fold idiom
Come back to a group after an absence, as in Matthew taught for a number of years, but now he's returned to the fold as vice-president of the firm. This term employs fold in the sense of “an enclosure for sheep,” which has been used figuratively since the first half of the 1300s.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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