Fork sb.

Also 1 forca, (myx-)force, 3 pl. furken, 4–6 forcke, 4–7 forke. [OE. forca wk. masc., force wk. fem., ad. L. furca fem., fork (for hay, etc.), forked stake, gallows, yoke.

  The use of the word in Eng. was doubtless extended by the influence of the ONF. form forque, fourque (Central OF. forche, fourche), from which some of the Eng. senses are derived. The L. word is found in nearly all the Rom. and Teut. langs.: cf. Pr. forca, Sp. horca, Pg. forca, It. furca, OHG. furcha (mod. Ger. furke), Du. vork, all chiefly in sense ‘pitchfork’; also ON. forkr, forked stake.]

  I.  A pronged instrument.

  1.  An implement, chiefly agricultural, consisting of a long straight handle, furnished at the end with two or more prongs or tines, and used for carrying, digging, lifting, or throwing; also with word prefixed indicating its use, as digging-, dung-, hay-, etc., fork: see those words; also FIRE-FORK, PITCHFORK, etc.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Hom. (Th.), I. 430. Ða cwelleras … wið-ufan mid heora forcum hine ðydon. Ibid. (c. 1000), Gloss., in Wr.-Wülcker, 154. Furcilla, litel forca.

a. 1310.  in Wright’s, Lyric P., xxxix. 110.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Sam. xiii. 21. Eggys of the sharis, and of diggynge yrens, and of forkis, and of the axis weren blunt, vnto a prik to menden.

1413.  Pilgr. Sowle (Caxton, 1483), III. viii. 55. This is the wretchid lygne of malicious peple; such folke it nedeth thus for to bynde in fagottes, and cast them with forkes into the fyre.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 24. A good husbande hath his forkes and rakes made redye in the wynter before.

1573.  Baret, Alv., F 892. A Forke, or trout speare with three points, fuscina.

1573.  Tusser, Husb., liii. (1878), 120.

1700.  Dryden, Cock & Fox, 726.

1719.  London & Wise, The Complete Gard’ner, VIII. 196. We must use an Iron Fork to draw them out of the Nursery-Beds, the Spade being dangerous for that work, because it would cut and hurt those little Plants.

1784.  Cowper, Task, III. 479.

1860.  Delamer, The Kitchen Garden (1861), 16. A fork for taking up potatoes, &c., and spreadings dung.

  fig. in Proverb.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Fork is often Rakes Heir, or after a scraping Father comes a scattering Son.

1725.  New Cant. Dict., Fork is also used for a Spendthrift, etc.

  † b.  A similar implement used as a weapon.

13[?].  K. Alis., 1189.

1598.  Grenewey, Tacitus’ Ann., 78. Some with poles or forks ouerthrew this sluggish lump: leauing them for halfe dead lying on the ground, not once going about to rise.

1678.  trans. Gaya’s Arms of War, 29. The Forks are the same with the common Forks, but they have little Hooks.

  † c.  The forked tongue (popularly supposed to be the sting) of a snake. Obs.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., III. i. 16.

  2.  An instrument with two, three, or four prongs, used for holding the food while it is being cut, for conveying it to the mouth, and for other purposes at table or in cooking. For carving-, dessert-, fish-, pickle-, table-fork, etc., see those words.

1463.  Bury Wills (Camden), 40. Beqwethe to Davn John Kertelynge, my silvir forke for grene gyngo^r. Ibid. (1554), 147. I geve and bequeath my neighbo^r, good Mistris Andrewes, my spone with a forke in the end, of silver, for a poore token of remembraunce.

1589.  Pasquil’s Ret., D iij. At the signe of the siluer forke and the tosted cheese, where the Painter to bewray both his abuse of the Scriptures, and his malice against the Church, hath drawne him his worde with a Text-pen, Zelus domus tuæ comedit me.

1605.  B. Jonson, Volpone, IV. i.

1724.  R. Falconer, Voy. (1769), 65. I had in my Pocket a Knife and Fork, and a Case of Lancets, but they were rusted by being wet, and of no Use to me, for I could get nothing to exercise ’em on; indeed my Fork serv’d me to twist out my Perriwinkles.

1766.  Smollett, Trav., I. v. 62. The poorest tradesman in Boulogne has a napkin on every cover, and silver forks with four prongs, which are used with the right hand, there being very little occasion for knives; for the meat is boiled or roasted to rags.

1838.  Dickens, Nich. Nick., xxv. Mr. Lillyvick laid down his knife and fork, and looked round the table with indignant astonishment.

  b.  Forks and knives: the name of the club-moss Lycopodium clavatum.

1853.  G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., I. 257. The spikes of it are called Forks and Knives, according as they are single, double or triple.

  3.  Used in pl. for the prongs of a fork. Also transf. Cf. 12.

1674.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., IV. (1677), 40. An Eel-spear: it is made for the most part with three Forks or Teeth, jagged on the sides; but those are better that have four.

1702.  Addison, Dialogues upon … Medals, Wks. 1721, I. 447. There are several, for example, that will find a mystery in every tooth of Neptune’s trident, and are amazed at the wisdom of the ancients that represented a thunder-bolt with three forks, since, they will tell you, nothing could have better explained its triple quality of piercing, burning and melting.

1767.  H. Kelly, etc. The Babler, I. No. 64, 280. A couple of tushes that project a surprising way from the mouth, like the forks of an elephant.

  b.  pl. (slang). The fingers. Hence, a pickpocket (B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, a. 1700[?]).

1812.  J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., Forks, the two fore-fingers; to put your forks down, is to pick a pocket.

1834.  W. H. Ainsworth, Rookwood, III. v., ‘Jerry Juniper’s Chaunt.’

  4.  A steel instrument with two prongs which, when set in vibration, gives a musical note; called more fully a tuning-fork.

1799.  Young, in Phil. Trans., XC. 134. The fork was a comma and a half above the pitch assumed by Sauveur, of an imaginary C, consisting of one vibration in a second.

c. 1865.  J. Wylde, in Circ. Sc., I. 275/1. If the fork be struck against any hard body, then its prong at once vibrates, and, in so doing, it causes the air next to it to vibrate also.

  II.  Applied to various objects having two (or more) branches.

  † 5.  A gallows. Also pl. Cf. FORCHE 1.

  [So OF. fourche(s, L. furca; the Roman gallows was originally of the shape ^.]

c. 1205.  Lay., 5720.

1399.  Political Poems (Rolls), I. 379.

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot., V. 121. Gif ony of thir be conuicte of falshet, lat him end his lyf vpon ane fork, and kastne by vnȝerdet.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem., II. 195. Like the old Mathematicians, that were never believed to be profoundly knowing in their Profession, until they had run through all Punishments, and just ’scaped the Fork.

  † b.  Rom. Ant. Used to render L. furca, (a) the ‘yoke’ under which defeated enemies were made to pass as a token of their submission; (b) the forked stake used as a whipping-post.

a. 1616.  Beaum. & Fl., Bonduca, II. iv.

1618.  Bolton, Florus, I. xvi. 48. Contented himselfe with only disarming, and passing them naked under Forkes, or Gallowses.

1683.  Dryden & Lee, Duke of Guise, IV. v. We past Like beaten Romans underneath the Fork.

  6.  A stake, staff, or stick with a forked end: a. as a prop for a vine or tree; b. a rest for a musket; cf. FORCAT. c. (See quot.). d. Mining (Derbysh.): see quot. 1881. e. A divining-rod.

  a.  1389.  Helmingham MS., 21. 17 b. Forkis … to bere up þe vyne.

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 423. Some haue put two little Forkes about the Bottome of their Trees, to keepe them vpright.

1816.  Keatinge, Trav. (1817), I. 43. The delightful odours sent out at nightfall by the teeming orchards which completely surround them; the boughs bent to the earth by weight of produce, or propped up by forks, as is the usual process, next strike the sense.

  b.  a. 1587.  Garrard, The Arte of Warre (1591), 7. To traine hys Forke or Staffe after hym whilest he in skyrmish doth charge hys Musket a fresh with Pouder and Bullet.

  c.  1726.  Gentlem. Angler, 149. A Fork. Vide Rest [for a fishing rod].

  d.  1747.  Hooson, Miner’s Dict., G iij b. If … we think it will let the Forks settle when they come to be weighted, we put a Sill under them.

1881.  Raymond, Mining Gloss., Fork.… A piece of wood supporting the side of an excavation in soft ground.

  e.  1886.  A. Winchell, Walks & Talks Geol. Field, 137. Some men under pay from capitalists, even resorted to the witch-hazel fork [in ‘prospecting’ for petroleum] in quest of knowledge on which capital might venture investment.

  7.  Building. See quots. 1868, 1883.

c. 1420.  Pallad. on Husb., I. 519.

1792.  J. Mastin, Hist. Antiq. Naseby, 9. The oldest houses in Naseby are, as to the wood part, mostly oak, and some of them of the most antique architecture, called forked building, which forks are all of oak, very rough, strong, uncouth, and put together in a rude manner.

1841.  Anc. Laws Wales, I. 721. Thirty pence is the value of every fork that shall support the roof tree.

1868.  Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., Forks, the centres, in the timber-work of the roof of a shed, house or other building; commonly, ‘a pair of forks.’

1883.  F. Seebohm, Village Community, 239. Their [the trees’] extremities bending over make a Gothic arch, and crossing one another at the top, each pair makes a fork, upon which the roof-tree is fixed. These trees supporting the roof-tree are called gavaels, forks, or columns.

  † 8.  Anat. Fork of the throat or breast: app. the sternal bone together with the clavicles. Obs.

  [= med.L. furcula, OF. fourcelle; the words seem to have been used very vaguely, and it is often impossible to determine the exact sense.]

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 316. Ffor brekyng of þe forke of þe þrote and of þe brest.

c. 1535.  Dewes, Introd. Fr., in Palsgr., 900. The forke of the brest … fourcelle.

1639.  T. de Gray, Compl. Horseman, 39. The Forke or Throat hath five [bones].

  † 9.  The barbed head of an arrow. Obs.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, I. i. 146.

  10.  In various technical uses. a. A piece of steel fitting into the socket or chuck of a lathe, used for carrying round the piece to be turned.

1858.  in Simmonds, Dict. Trade.

  b.  (also forks): see quot.

1888.  Lockwood’s Dict. Terms Mech. Engin., Belt Fork, or Strap Fork, a pair of prongs standing out from a strap bar and enclosing a space within which the belt or strap of a machine fitted with fast and loose pulleys runs.

1893.  Labour Commission, Gloss., Forks. In mill sawing machinery the forks are two upright pieces of iron one on each side of the band moved by a lever to throw the band on or off the driving wheels.

  c.  The front or back projection of a saddle.

1833.  Reg. Instr. Cavalry, I. 46. The reins in the full of the left hand, on the pummel or fore fork. Ibid., 42. The Blanket, in light Cavalry, to be raised well into the fork over the withers, by putting the arm under it.

  11.  Mining. (See quots.)

1778.  W. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 321/2. Forcque, Fork; the bottom of the Sumph. Forking the water, is drawing it all out; and when it is done, they say, ‘The Mine or the water is Forked’; and ‘the Engine is in Fork.’

1869.  R. B. Smyth, Gold Fields of Victoria, 611. Fork—When a mine is in fork the bottom of the engine-shaft is clear of water.

  12.  [From the verb.] A forking, bifurcation, or division into branches; the point at which anything forks. Hence, each of the branches into which anything forks. a. gen.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xviii. (1495), 123. The endes of thyse bones ben departed and haue two forkes.

1615.  Crooke, Body of Man, 375. In the dilatation of the heart they are all extended, the forked values making certain gaping fissures betweene their forkes, by which the matters are let in.

1674.  N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., IV. (1677), 10. Those sixty Carps were from Eye to Fork from fifteen Inches to eighteen Inches when we put them in.

1830.  Herschel, Stud. Nat. Phil., 83. If we cross the two first fingers of one hand, and place a pea in the fork between them, moving and rolling it about on a table, we shall (especially if we close our eyes) be fully persuaded we have two peas.

  b.  In the human body, the part at which the lower limbs proceed from the trunk. Also (sing. and pl.), the lower limbs themselves; the lower half of the body. Cf. FORCHURE.

1605.  Shaks., Lear, IV. vi. 121. Behold yond simpring Dame, whose face betweene her Forkes presages Snow.

1631.  [see CHINING vbl. sb.].

1812.  Examiner, 12 Oct., 652/a. You are not long enough in the fork for the—dragoons.

1872.  Baker, Nile Tribut., xiv. 234. The thigh, and entire leg from the fork to the ankle, I carefully secured to the long splint with three rows of bandages.

  c.  The point at which a river divides into two, or the point of junction of two rivers; a branch or tributary. Chiefly U.S.

1753.  C. Gist, Journals (1893), 80. The next day set out and got to the big fork of said river, about ten miles there.

1837.  W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. 61. They came to the fork of Nebraska, where it divides itself into two equal and beautiful streams.

1839.  Murchison, Silur. Syst., I. xxix. 372. In this range they are divided naturally into two parts by the north and south forks of the great estuary of Milford Haven.

1846.  R. B. Sage, Scenes Rocky Mts., vi. 50. The defeated party were pursued only a short distance, and then permitted to return without further molestation to their village, at the Forks of the Platte.

1877.  J. A. Allen, Amer. Bison, 515. In the autumn of 1835 Paker met with great herds on the east fork of the Salmon River and on other tributaries of the Snake River.

  d.  of a road.

1839–40.  W. Irving, Wolfert’s R. (1855), 281. Coming to a fork in the road, the alcayde ordered five of his cavaliers to take one of the branches, while he, with the remaining four, would take the other.

1860.  Pusey, Min. Proph., 241, note. Then, the violent, busy, laying the hands on the spoil, while others of them stood in cold blood, taking the fork where the ways parted, in order to intercept the fugitives before they were dispersed, or to shut them up with the enemy, driving them back on their pursuers.

1883.  Howard, Roads (ed. 3), 47. Here take the right hand fork, and after a mile or so of undulating road it is downhill into York Town.

  e.  of a plant or tree.

1776.  Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), II. 200. Fruit-stalk solitary, terminating, rising from the fork of the stem.

1843.  Zoologist, I. 228. The raven’s nest was placed in a fork on the very summit of one of the highest of these trees.

1871.  G. Meredith, H. Richmond, I. xv. 230. Torches were struck in clefts of the trees, or in the fork of the branches, or held by boys and men, and there were clearly men at work beneath the tent at a busy rate.

  f.  A flash (of forked lightning); a tongue of flame.

1859.  Tennyson, Vivien, 938.

1871.  Palgrave, Lyr. Poems, 58.

  † 13.  fig. a. nonce-use. The union of two lines of descent. b. A dilemma, choice of alternatives; also, a dichotomy, distinction. Obs.

1559.  Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence, vi.

a. 1616.  Beaum. & Fl., Bloody Brother, III. ii.

1670.  Hobbes, Behemoth (1840), 214. And from these the schoolmen that succeeded, learnt the trick of imposing what they list upon their readers, and declining the force of true reason by verbal forks; I mean, distinctions that signify nothing, but serve only to astonish the multitude of ignorant men.

  14.  Caudine Forks = L. Furcæ or Furculæ Caudinæ: proper name of a defile near Caudium, in Samnium, where the Romans were intercepted in the second Samnite war. Hence proverbially used for: A crushing defeat.

1618.  Bolton, Florus, I. xvi. 48. The most notable and famous foyle which ever happened to the Romans by this Nation, was received at the Forkes of Caudium, Veturius, and Posthuminus, Consuls.

1781.  J. Adams Fam. Lett. (1876), 403. The Romans never saw but one Caudine Forks in their whole history. Americans have shown the Britons two in one war. But they must do more. Remember, you never will have peace while the Britons have a company of soldiers at liberty within the United States.

  III.  attrib. and Comb.

  15.  a. objective, as fork-grinder, etc.; b. parasynthetic and similative, as fork-like, -shaped, -tongued adjs.; fork-wise adv.

1844–5.  Dodd, Dict. Manuf., s. v. Fork Making.… The *fork-grinders are too often a reckless body of men, regardless of health, earning large wages, and prone to the maxim of leading ‘a short life and a merry one.’

1889.  Daily News, 11 Nov., 2/6. With the exception of the fork grinders there is no actual agitation.

1611.  Cotgr., Fourcheure, A forkinesse … a *fork-like diuision.

1889.  Daily News, 9 Oct., 5/5. They frequently fix the faces of the prisoners with forklike irons towards the burning sun.

1835–6.  Todd, Cycl. Anat., I. 334/2. The vessel then passes between the clavicle and the *fork-shaped bone, and on a ligament which connects the head of the clavicle to that of the scapula, and disperses its branches upon the upper part of the shoulder-joint, forming anastomoses with the neighbouring arteries.

1636.  Massinger, Gt. Dk. Florence, III. i.

1541.  R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., D ij. Demaunde. What is the maner of procedyng of the veynes & arteres through the body? Answere. Whan they go forth of the place of theyr breding, they renne forkewyse in two partyes, the one vpwarde and the other downewarde.

1668.  Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. xvi. 40. It is divided forkwise into two twigs, one of which goes to the Spleen, the other to the stomach.

  16.  Special comb.: fork-beam Naut. (see quot.); fork-beard, a name given to various fishes of the genus Phycis; fork-breakfast (see quot.); fork-carving a., that uses a fork in carving; fork-chuck (Wood-turning), a chuck with two or more teeth: see quot. 1874; fork-fish, ? a kind of thornback; fork-moss, a kind of moss (Dicranum bryoïdes); fork-ribbed a., having ribs branching off like the prongs of a fork; fork-shaft, the handle of a fork; fork-staff-plane, a kind of joiner’s plane used for working convex cylindrical surfaces; fork-way, a point where two roads meet or diverge, a fork; fork-wrench (see quot.). Also FORK-HEAD, FORK-TAIL.

c. 1850.  Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 95. Beam-Arm, or *Fork-Beam, a forked piece of timber, nearly of the depth of the beam, scarphed, tabled, and bolted, for additional security to the sides of beams athwart large openings in the decks, as the main hatchway and the mast-rooms.

1864.  J. Couch, Fishes Brit. Isl., III. 122. Lesser *Forkbeard.

1812.  Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 163/1. Le dejeuner à la fourchette, or *fork-breakfast, is so called, because in eating meat you have occasion for a fork.

1882.  H. C. Merivale, Faucit of B., III. II. xv. 96. In this country, where the true luxury of life and safeguard of digestion, the French midday fork-breakfast, is unknown, and practically impossible.

c. 1618.  Fletcher, Q. Corinth, IV. i.

1842.  Francis, Dict. Arts, etc., *Fork Chuck.… The part which screws to the mandril has on the outer side a square hole, in which forked pieces of iron … of different sizes, according to the strength required, are placed when in use.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 908/1. Fork-chuck. (Turning.) A piece of steel projecting from the live spindle and carrying the front center and a pair of joints which enter the wood and rotate it.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 261. As for the Puffen or *Fork-fish, he lieth in await like a theefe in a corner, ready to strike the fishes that passe by with a sharpe rod or pricke that he hath, which is his weapon.

1706.  Phillips (ed. Kersey), Fork-fish, a kind of Thorn-back, so call’d from its forked Tail.

1860.  Gosse, The Romance of Natural History 192. The sight of the *fork-moss would ever afterwards call up a vivid recollection of that desolate scene, and that he could never look on it without strong emotion.

1858.  Carpenter, Veg. Phys., § 196. As regards their leaves, the Cryptogamia may be characterised as *fork-ribbed.

1641.  Best, Farm. Bks. (Surtees), 34 One may buy allsoe att Malton shorte *forke-shaftes, made of seasoned ashe, and quarter cliffe for 2s. or 22d. a dozen.

1848.  A. B. Evans, Leicestersh. Words, etc., Fork-shaft. Handle of a fork, whether pitchfork or any other.

1816.  J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 111. A plane of the size and shape in question, with a concave sole, is also distinguished by the name of a “forkstaff-plane; and one which is convex, is sometimes called a round-sole.

1819.  W. Taylor, in Monthly Mag., XLVII. 308. Hecate, Luna, Diana, who meet in a *fork-way.

1874.  Knight, Dict. Mech., I. 908/2 *Fork-wrench. A spanner with two jaws which embrace a nut or square on a coupling.