“forks” is a form of
fork
UK /fɔːk/ · US /fɔɹk/ noun, verb
Forms forks forking forked forcque
- noun A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting, or for serving food.
- noun Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.
- noun Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.
- noun A tuning fork.
- noun (physical) An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
- noun (figurative) A decision point.
- noun (by abstraction, from the tool shape) A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.
- noun (metonymic, analogous to any prong of a pronged tool) 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. “a thunderbolt with three forks”
- verb (ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies. “A road, a tree, or a stream forks.”
- verb (ambitransitive, computing) To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.
- verb (ambitransitive, software engineering) To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.
- verb (transitive, software engineering) To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.
- verb (transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).
- verb (transitive) To apply a fork to. “forking the soil”
- verb (transitive, UK) To kick someone in the crotch.
- verb (intransitive) To shoot into blades, as corn does.
- noun (mining) The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.
- verb (mining, transitive) To bale a shaft dry.
Synonyms
branch prong swell pommel branching ramification forking crotch pitchfork ramify furcate separate
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English forke (“digging fork”), from Old English force, forca (“forked instrument used to torture”), from Proto-West Germanic *furkō (“fork”), from Latin furca (“pitchfork, forked stake; gallows, beam, stake, support post, yoke”), of uncertain origin. The Middle English word was later reinforced by Anglo-Norman, Old Northern French forque (= Old French forche whence French fourche), also from the Latin. Doublet of fourche and furcate. Cognate also with North Frisian forck (“fork”), Dutch vork (“fork”), Danish fork (“fork”), German Forke (“pitchfork”). Displaced native gafol, ġeafel, ġeafle (“fork”), from Old English.
In its primary sense of “fork”, Latin furca appears to be derived from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰerk(ʷ)-, *ǵʰerg(ʷ)- (“fork”), although the development of the -c- is difficult to explain. In other senses this derivation is unlikely. For these, perhaps it is connected to Proto-Germanic *furkaz, *firkalaz (“stake, stick, pole, post”), from Proto-Indo-European *perg- (“pole, post”). If so, this would relate the word to Old English forclas pl (“bolt”), Old Saxon ferkal (“lock, bolt, bar”), Old Norse forkr (“pole, staff, stick”), Norwegian fork (“stick, bat”), Swedish fork (“pole”).
Ultimately from Etymology 1, above, through use for various things with two or more branches. Attested in this sense from the 18th century.
Webster’s 1913
- noun 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.
- noun Anything furcate or like of a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.
- verb To shoot into blades, as corn.
- verb To divide into two or more branches; as, a road, a tree, or a stream forks.
Etymology [AS. forc, fr. L. furca. Cf. Fourch, Furcate.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “fork”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details