dung forkn.
/ˈdʌŋ fɔːk/, U.S. /ˈdəŋ ˌfɔrk/ 1. Agriculture and Horticulture.
a. A large, long-handled fork, typically with three or four tines, chiefly used for lifting, turning, or spreading dung, compost, etc. Cf. muck-fork n.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > fork > dung-fork
muck-hook1300
muck-forkc1350
muck-hack1362
dung pick1381
dung fork1397
muck crook1446
graip1459
muck-crome1501
muck-drag1545
shed-spade1559
pluck1825
1397 Inquisition Misc. (P.R.O.: C 145/269/5) Bona & catalla..videlicet..ij. fetropes .j. dongforke .j. shouele.
?1497 Lydgate's Churl & Bird (de Worde) sig. Aviv To a chorle a dongforke [a1500 Lansd. mookfork] in his honde.
1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) f. 14v A pytch fork, a dong fork, seeue, skep & a bin.
1640 R. S. tr. J. Drexel School of Patience ii. iii. 250 Somtimes we set upon them with long poles and dung forks.
1669 J. Worlidge Dictionarium Rusticum in Systema Agriculturæ 270 A Dung-fork is a Tool of three Tines or Pikes, for the better casting of Dung.
1729 in M. Bodfish Probate Inventories of Smethwick Residents 1647–1747 (1992) 69 In the stable..one Dinckforke & other things.
1766 Compl. Farmer at Asparagus With a narrow pronged dung fork, carefully fork up your roots.
1834 Brit. Husbandry (Libr. Useful Knowl.) I. x. 254 The manure..so far rotted as to be easily divisible by the dung-fork.
1876 Launceston (Tasmania) Examiner 20 June A case of threatening and rushing at the complainant with a dung fork.
1930 Sun (Baltimore) 6 July (Mag. section) 17/1 [The stableboy] picked up the dungfork and flung its contents on the barnyard heap.
1948 Hansard Commons 2 Feb. (Written Answers) 220 Brigadier Peto asked the Minister..whether he is aware that dung forks are in short supply, and whether..he is suggesting some other way of spreading manure efficiently.
2016 Mail on Sunday (Nexis) 7 Aug. 96 Some items, such as pitchforks.., are rarely used today but..a border fork or a dung fork (great for turning compost) will always be in demand.
b. Chiefly British. A pronged scoop attached to the loader of a tractor or other farm vehicle, used for moving dung.
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the world > food and drink > farming > tools and implements > [noun] > other agricultural implements
visgy1777
tomahawk1793
potato-scoop1810
rice stick1832
seed feeder1851
poniard1874
aphicide1883
thinner1943
mist blower1946
dung fork1951
wind-machine1976
1951 Farm Implem. & Machinery Rev. June 290/2 The ‘Unicarrier’ is fully floating and fittings include a silo rake, dung fork, earth scoop, earth leveller, turf cutter, etc.
1977 Livestock Farming Mar. 64/2 A tractor and dung fork takes up too much room in the beef units and has, in the past, damaged the buildings.
1982 Power Farming July 82/3 Attachments available include 2m dung fork, £550.
2004 Pract. Farm Ideas 13 No. 4. 13/1 The feeder..can be handled from above, using a dung fork, bale spike, or whatever is on the loader at the time.
2. Entomology. A flattened fork-like structure situated near the anal opening of the larvae of certain tortricid moths, used to eject faeces. Also: a similar structure situated in the larvae of certain chrysomelid beetles, used to carry a mass of faeces over the insect's back as a means of concealment; = fecifork n. Now rare.
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1890 Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 1888–90 24 554 Similar dung-forks are very generally present in geometrid larvæ.
1929 L. P. Wehrle Clover-leaf Caterpillar & Clover-leaf Tyer (Bull. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exper. Station No. 489) 10 The dung fork bears five prongs and is prominent.
1942 S. W. Frost Gen. Entomol. vii. 151 Larvae [of the argus potato beetle and the tortoise beetles] possess a ‘dung fork’, fecifork, which is used to place the excrement and cast skins in a pack over the back.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2018; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1397