Category:Fork

Fork, n. Etym: [AS. forc, fr. L. furca. Cf. Fourch, Furcate.]

1. An instrument consisting 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 from piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.

2. Anything furcate or like of 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. Shak. A thunderbolt with three forks. Addison.

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. [Obs.] Bp. Butler. 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 a road, the branches into which it divides, or which come together to form it; the place where separation or union takes place.

fork Fork, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Forked; p. pr. & vb. n. Forking.]

1. To shoot into blades, as corn. The corn beginneth to fork. Mortimer. 1

2. To divide into two or more branches; as, a road, a tree, or a stream forks.

fork Fork, v. t.

Defn: 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. Prof. Wilson. To fork over or out, to hand or pay over, as money. [Slang] G. Eliot.