Fork

[fawrk] /fɔrk/

noun
1.
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.
2.
something resembling or suggesting this in form.
3.
.
4.
Machinery. 1 (def 9).
5.
a division into branches.
6.
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.
7.
either of the branches into which a thing divides.
8.
Horology. (in a lever escapement) the end of the lever engaging with the ruby pin.
9.
a principal tributary of a river.
10.
the support of the front wheel axles of a bicycle or motorcycle, having the shape of a two-pronged fork.
11.
the barbed head of an arrow.
verb (used with object)
12.
to pierce, raise, pitch, dig, etc., with a fork.
13.
to make into the form of a fork.
14.
Chess. to maneuver so as to place (two opponent’s pieces) under simultaneous attack by the same piece.
verb (used without object)
15.
to divide into branches:
Turn left where the road forks.
16.
to turn as indicated at a fork in a road, path, etc.:
Fork left and continue to the top of the hill.
Verb phrases
17.
fork over/out/up, Informal. to hand over; deliver; pay:
Fork over the money you owe me!
/fɔːk/
noun
1.
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
2.
an agricultural tool consisting of a handle and three or four metal prongs, used for lifting, digging, etc
3.
a pronged part of any machine, device, etc
4.
(of a road, river, etc)

5.
(mainly US) the main tributary of a river
6.
(chess) a position in which two pieces are forked
verb
7.
(transitive) to pick up, dig, etc, with a fork
8.
(transitive) (chess) to place (two enemy pieces) under attack with one of one’s own pieces, esp a knight
9.
(transitive) to make into the shape of a fork
10.
(intransitive) to be divided into two or more branches
11.
to take one or other branch at a fork in a road, river, etc
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.
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.

verb

To cheat; maltreat; take advantage of; fuck, shaft: I hoped he’d take care of us, but we got forked

[1940s+; a euphemism for fuck]
operating system
A Unix system call used by a process (the “parent”) to make a copy (the “child”) of itself. The child process is identical to the parent except it has a different process identifier and a zero return value from the fork call. It is assumed to have used no resources.
A fork followed by an exec can be used to start a different process but this can be inefficient and some later Unix variants provide vfork as an alternative mechanism for this.
See also fork bomb.
(1996-12-08)