Fork
Fork (fôrk) , noun
[Anglo-Saxon forc, from Latin furca. Compare Fourché, Furcate.]
1.
An instrument consisting of a handle with a shank terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; -- used for piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.
2.
Anything furcate or like a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.
3.
One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.
Let it fall... though the fork invade
The region of my heart.
A thunderbolt with three forks.
4.
The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.
5.
The gibbet. [Obsolete] — Bp. Butler
Collocations (5)
Fork beam (Shipbuilding) , a half beam to support a deck, where hatchways occur.
Fork chuck (Wood Turning) , a lathe center having two prongs for driving the work.
Fork head , (a) The barbed head of an arrow. (b) The forked end of a rod which forms part of a knuckle joint.
In fork (Mining) , A mine is said to be in fork, or an engine to “have the water in fork,” when all the water is drawn out of the mine. — Ure
The forks of a river or The forks of a road , the branches into which it divides, or which come together to form it; the place where separation or union takes place.
Fork , intransitive verb
1.
To shoot into blades, as corn.
The corn beginneth to fork.
2.
To divide into two or more branches; as, a road, a tree, or a stream forks.
Fork , transitive verb
To raise, or pitch with a fork, as hay; to dig or turn over with a fork, as the soil.
Forking the sheaves on the high-laden cart.
Collocations (1)
To fork over or To fork out , to hand or pay over, as money; to cough up. [Slang] — G. Eliot