Liberal Dictionary English Dictionary
fork [fawrk] ExamplesWord Origin noun
- an instrument having two or more prongs or tines, for holding, lifting, etc., as an implement for handling food or any of various agricultural tools.
- something resembling or suggesting this in form.
- tuning fork.
- Machinery. yoke1(def 9).
- a division into branches.
- the point or part at which a thing, as a river or a road, divides into branches: Bear left at the fork in the road.
- either of the branches into which a thing divides.
- Horology. (in a lever escapement) the forked end of the lever engaging with the ruby pin.
- a principal tributary of a river.
- the support of the front wheel axles of a bicycle or motorcycle, having the shape of a two-pronged fork.
- the barbed head of an arrow.
verb (used with object)
- to pierce, raise, pitch, dig, etc., with a fork.
- to make into the form of a fork.
- Chess. to maneuver so as to place (two opponent’s pieces) under simultaneous attack by the same piece.
- Digital Technology to copy (the source code) from a piece of software and develop a new version independently, with the result of producing two unique pieces of software.
verb (used without object)
- to divide into branches: Turn left where the road forks.
- to turn as indicated at a fork in a road, path, etc.: Fork left and continue to the top of the hill.
Verb Phrases
- fork over/out/up, Informal. to hand over; deliver; pay: Fork over the money you owe me!
Origin of fork before 1000; Middle English forke, Old English forca Latin furca fork, gallows, yokeRelated formsfork·less, adjectivefork·like, adjectiveun·fork, verb (used with object) Related Words for forking bifurcate, angle, divide, diverge, part, split, divaricate Examples from the Web for forking Contemporary Examples of forking
Murdoch bought the Journal at a major loss in 2007, forking over about $5 billion.
JP Morgan Losses, Barclays’s Bad Bet: It’s a Bad Day for Banks
Alex Klein
June 28, 2012
Historical Examples of forking
Just beneath at the first forking of the boughs a candle burned.
James Lane Allen
Bifurcation: a forking or division into two: the point at which a forking occurs.
Explanation of Terms Used in Entomology
John. B. Smith
Do some of us still hesitate at this forking of the roads, irresolute?
S.D. Gordon
A forking of the road supplied a new subject for discussion.
Eleanor M. Ingram
I knew the buck by his greater size and forking horns, which the does want.
Mayne Reid
British Dictionary definitions for forking fork noun
- a small usually metal implement consisting of two, three, or four long thin prongs on the end of a handle, used for lifting food to the mouth or turning it in cooking, etc
- an agricultural tool consisting of a handle and three or four metal prongs, used for lifting, digging, etc
- a pronged part of any machine, device, etc
- (of a road, river, etc)
- a division into two or more branches
- the point where the division begins
- such a branch
- mainly US the main tributary of a river
- chess a position in which two pieces are forked
verb
- (tr) to pick up, dig, etc, with a fork
- (tr) chess to place (two enemy pieces) under attack with one of one’s own pieces, esp a knight
- (tr) to make into the shape of a fork
- (intr) to be divided into two or more branches
- to take one or other branch at a fork in a road, river, etc
Derived Formsforkful, nounWord Origin for fork Old English forca, from Latin furca Word Origin and History for forking fork n.
Old English forca “forked instrument used by torturers,” a Germanic borrowing (cf. Old Norse forkr) from Latin furca “pitchfork; fork used in cooking,” of uncertain origin.
Table forks were not generally used in England until 15c. The word is first attested in this sense in English in a will of 1463, probably from Old North French forque (Old French furche, Modern French fourche), from the Latin word. Of rivers, from 1753; of roads, from 1839.
fork v.
“to divide in branches, go separate ways” (early 14c.), from fork (n.). Related: Forked; forking. The slang verb phrase fork up (or out) “give over” is from 1831.