Definition of fork in English:

fork

noun fɔːkfɔrk

1An implement with two or more prongs used for lifting food to the mouth or holding it when cutting.
Example sentencesExamples
- A man often puts a piece of food on his fork, puts it in his mouth, swallows it, often too quickly to properly taste it, stops eating when he no longer feels hungry.
- Watching, under her lashes, as he sliced the tip of the ham, scraped it in the dressing and then swirled it through the salad before shovelling the laden fork into his mouth.
- The herb mash was a tad too firm, although tasty enough, but that was more than made up for by the sheer quality, freshness and succulence of fish that virtually dissolved as the fork hit the mouth.
- She bounced and grinned in response and happily stuffed the fork into her mouth, making sure to clean off every bit of food before she brought it back down again.
- I was sitting on an end, half consumed by darkness, which made it difficult to see what was travelling on my fork into my mouth.
- All these invite the sidelong glances of those who pretend not to be looking, as when in a restaurant, she struggles to keep the food on the fork long enough to deposit it in the mouth.
- He noticed her picking at the food nervously with her fork.
- Someone's food fell off a fork into another's glass of wine.
- He put his fork of food down and pulled out his pocket watch.
- I heard the sound of metal utensils and plate colliding as the eater's spoons and forks battled with their food.
- She turned her back to us and jabbed her food with a fork.
- I glanced around at the rest of the family, forks in the left hand, knives in the right, busily pushing food onto their forks with their knives.
- Using a fork will pierce food and natural juices will be lost.
- She let him place a small bite of cheesecake in her mouth with a fork.
- As the children filled their forks with nourishing food, bodily complications were discussed.
- Both were served with delicious green beans that still had a nice crunch to them and little roasted potatoes that you could easily pop into your mouth without a fork.
- Jim sat down and picked up a fork, examining the food before him.
- She pushed the food around with her fork, and closed her eyes.
- And in the friendly skies, a friend, who flew business class, was given a plastic knife and a steel fork with his in-flight food.
- Glancing down at his plate, he picked at the cold cuts beneath his fork before reluctantly lifting the food to his mouth.
1. 1.1 A farm or garden tool with three or four prongs, used for digging or lifting.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Thrust 2 spading forks, back to back, into the clump and, using the handles of the forks as levers, pry the roots apart.
  Break up soil within the cutout using a garden fork.
  To avoid damaging the edible portions, use a garden fork to loosen the soil around the leeks first.
  Unlike the fork, the sod-coring tool removes cores of soil from the lawn instead of pushing the soil aside to create holes.
  Another alternative, this one relating to the common problem of dandelions in the yard, is to use a weed fork, or a tool, to pull up the dandelions.
  Spiking the area with a garden fork driven into the lawn and gently moved backwards and forwards before removing will improve drainage.
  Turn the mixture once or twice a week with a pitch fork or garden fork to help the process along.
  He could heave it with a garden fork into the sacks.
  Sometimes referred to as a hand fork, the cultivator is used for weeding, and as its name implies, for cultivating the soil.
  Scratch up the surface of any bare patches in the lawn using a garden fork or metal rake.
  As the soil was very friable due to being sieved into all treatment plots, rows were lifted with a garden fork and the retrieved roots were taken as representative of the root system.
  The first half ended with the skit entitled I didn't do it, in which Joseph plays a schoolboy arrested by the police for obscene language while working in the school garden with hoes, forks and agricultural tools.
  Anne wets down a large pile of leaves and stirs it up with a spading fork.
  Place forks, rakes and other pointed tools tines down.
  The traditional gardeners' tools of spades, forks and trowels have been replaced by sketchpads, hammers and nails.
  So I indicated that my goal henceforth was the space between two prongs of a garden fork, whereas his was the expanse between an apple tree and a pear tree in our fruity back garden.
  I had a cosmic kind of thought yesterday while turning over some garden soil with the spading fork.
  Rhizomes are easy to pry up with a garden fork or shovel.
  Spike poorly drained patches of lawn with a garden fork, top-dressing with sand to improve the drainage.
  Today, everything in the hall is sparkling, from the forks in the garden to those in the restaurant.
2. 1.2as modifier Denoting a light meal or buffet that may be eaten solely with a fork, while standing.
  a hot fork buffet
  Example sentencesExamples
  A Right Royal Jubilee Recipe Book includes menu ideas for a fork lunch, dozens of dishes and is rounded off with a recipe for Commonwealth cake.
  The evening will commence at 7.30pm with a hot fork buffet at 8pm in the Hydro Suite with all the trimmings and award winning decorations.
  Baked chicken is a fork food, but fried chicken a finger food, depending on how it's fried.
2The point where something, especially a road or river, divides into two parts.
turn right at the next fork
Example sentencesExamples
- When faced with a fork in the road, you can always sit and wait for someone else to make the decision.
- As time has passed and we have come to critical forks in the road, the church itself has not always taken the right turn.
- He got as far as their Second XI before reaching a fork in the road.
- Park just before the house at the fork in the road, and begin the walk up the grassy path on the left immediately behind the house.
- Some students believe that they face a sharp fork in the road.
- It was as if she stood at a junction, or a fork in the road, and there wasn't any correct way to go.
- There are forks in the road of history where men such as you stand up to be counted.
- But the opposite holds true if the house is at the end of a T-junction or in the fork of a road where it faces oncoming traffic.
- Shaken but not stirred [or deterred] by this, we pressed on until we came to a fork in the road.
- There was no parallel track left and the fork in the road had come.
- Where was the fork in the road for America, the turning point sought in all those thousands of books and articles?
- Night had fallen prematurely as they turned a bend in the road, and finally caught sight of the river fork.
- In 1884, near the three forks of the Missouri River, Bridgeville, Montana Territory, became an English colony almost overnight.
- For now though it's just an oncoming fork in the road - nothing I can do about it, as the entire process is entirely out of my hands.
- He walks the road of the right, but finds himself at a fork in the road.
- A soldier came to a fork in the road and saw a nun standing there.
- Yet the path to class identity was not a straightforward one either in industrial or agricultural communities; there were many forks in the road, as recent local studies now reveal.
- With an election approaching, the US now finds itself at a fork in the road.
- He went on to note that the Flatheads, possessing large numbers of horses and lacking buffalo, traveled long distances to the forks of the Missouri River every fall to hunt.
- Then strangely, as we came to a fork in the road - they departed, thanking me, as you might a bus driver.
1. 2.1 Either of two forked parts.
  the left fork goes on to the village
  Example sentencesExamples
  At Kattikulam, the right fork of the road leads to Nagarhole and the left to Tirunelli through elephant sanctuaries and bamboo forests.
  However, when the taxi driver took the fork in the road towards Manhattan rather than Long Island, a strange sensation washed over me.
  He didn't take the left fork in the road, he paid the consequences.
  Halfway across, the trail runs back out to the eastern edge overlooking another fork of the canyon.
  Do not take the south fork in the road or you will head to Ric Flair's Millennial Bog.
  If a player made a mistake when making their way through a lair in that game, it could mean certain death as they tried to get back and try a different fork in the road.
  So, wasting no more time, I entered the maze and turned down the right fork in the path.
  Ignore left fork and enter grounds of school.
  It's more of a thumbnail character study of a guy who has apparently taken the wrong fork on every road he's traveled.
  A left fork from the road led me along a track up to it.
  This band definitely took the right fork in the road.
  About five hundred yards down this lane it forks, and for those pegs around the weir you should take the right hand fork, parking near the footbridge that crosses the canal by the weir.
  His head raised he looked first down one fork and then down the other, finally choosing one and setting off again.
3usually forksEach of a pair of supports in which a bicycle or motorcycle wheel revolves.
Example sentencesExamples
- I can now answer the question with data and affirm that roof racks do not put excess stress on forks.
- Can you tell me what the benefit is of having a carbon fork?
- The ladder arms are brought together at the front and angled up to become the headstock for the motorcycle forks, which are kept at a more vertical angle to allow for the extremely sharp turns.
- His bike had shock absorbers on the front forks to absorb bumps, her bicycle had none.
- The fork comes with disc brake mounts if a person would ever be interested in upgrading.
- All Reba forks use air spring technology and offer external or internal adjustment options.
- It was used to generate 3D models of many of the bike's components, including its forks, handlebars and even the cyclists' helmets.
- The front wheel attaches to the fork, which in turn links via bearings to the head set on the front of the frame.
- The wired mounting hardware works with oversized road bars and a variety of forks, but the wheel magnet only fits standard spokes.
- Vintage steel wheels and forks are hard to find.
- There was a hood ornament made out of forks shaped into a pair of horns (very Texan, I thought).
- Here is my take on the issue of roof racks and the stress they cause on forks and their dropouts.
- But installing them such makes it possible to drop the bicycle forks down on your vehicle roof if you slip.
- The best set up for a race fork would be light and stiff.
- The ZAP system is an add-on, tire-drive system that mounts the motor to the front or rear bicycle forks.
- Each wheel was carried in a fork formed by a pair of hydraulic shock absorber struts.
- We see children come into the shop, asking us to blow their tyres up, and we find brakes that don't work, forks badly bent and wheels buckled.
- The head stock was badly worn, which meant the forks carrying the front wheel were tenuously attached to the bikes frame.
- Big knobby tires, suspension fork and disc brakes make this one mean extreme machine, or at least one that looks the part.
4A flash of forked lightning.
Example sentencesExamples
- The forks that you can see are actually nitrogen and oxygen, which has been converted into plasma.
- Lightning forks scratched their summits and distant rainstorms hung like negligees billowing in the clean air.
- A fork of lightning illuminated the imposing shape that hovered in the doorway.
- A single fork of lightning slashed the sky, hitting the tree in front of her.
- Great booms and rumbles of electricity and bright forks of light above the London skyline - and the kind of excitement, tingling and calm that can only accompany a storm.
- I made it as quick as possible - the rain was still being blown hard against the windows and I could see large forks of lightning through the sheets of rain.
- A bright fork of lightning struck the clouds ahead, and the outburst of thunder was deafening.
- A single fork of white lightning slashed the sky, hitting the willow in front of her.
- She takes a step towards the edge, a branching fork of lightning flaring across the sky behind her, rain pelting her face but failing to muss her hair.
- The screaming subsided and the forks of lightning vanished with a descending hiss.
- Their linings were tainted a blood-red hue - a fork of lightning flashed every now and then.
- Just as a fork of lightening flashed past her window, two figures appeared in the doorway.
- There was a loud crack of thunder, then a long fork of lightning and sparks emitted from nowhere and struck the figure right in the chest.
- Just then, a fork of light streaked across the sky and a deafening roar filled her ears.
- If things weren't hard enough for Dr. Steve and his staff, the weather took a turn for the worse and forks of lightning nearly missed the boat many times.
- A brilliant fork of lightning erupted from the dark grey clouds, a clap of thunder following closely behind.
- It's a worship dance to the god of thunder and lightning in which the arms and legs mimic the claps of thunder and forks of lightning.
- She shivered, seeing blackness spread out like forks of lightning from the sun.
- The entire sky writhed in agony above him, split by gigantic forks of lightning flashing between the clouds.
- He let loose with a short hiss of pain just as the crowd gasped and began running home as forks of lightning shot from the clouds above.
5Chess
A simultaneous attack on two or more pieces by one.
Example sentencesExamples
- Forks are covered in the chapter ‘The Double Attack,’ although many would consider forks to be a separate species of double attack.
- A fork occurs when one piece attacks two or more enemy units at the same time.

verb fɔːkfɔrk

1no object (especially of a route) divide into two parts.
the place where the road forks
Example sentencesExamples
- However, when he came near a road that forked in three directions, the people Iokaste had described came in a colt-drawn carriage and tried to get him off the road and shoved him.
- You use anything you can, think on your feet, and talk in a way that's often very ambiguous, although it sounds very specific, and allows you to fork off in different directions.
- As the gates started to open, Wilton could see a trail of light leading in through them, up the driveway, and in behind a large sign at the place where the road forked.
- Sometimes the lightening forked across the sky like a crack in the dark firmament.
- Narrow dirt paths forked from the stairs, leading to even denser rows of crosses amongst soft weeds.
- He scampered into the shaft and continued for some hundred yards until the path abruptly forked once more.
- They continued down the path until it forked off into two paths, one going right, and the other going left.
- How does such a philosophy of life differ from the theory of multiple realities and infinitely forking paths?
- Frequent bolts of lightning forked through the sky, lighting up her surroundings with an eerie brightness.
- The path behind them forked off; a small hillock just a short hundred metres away.
- Conversely, the trail intersections homeward-bound ants encounter have branches that fork at a sharp angle and a gentle one.
- After a short time, they came across a bend in the dirt street, where two paths forked out.
- The road forked and turned dangerously several times.
- Manchester was a meeting and dividing point of Roman roads, forking at the site of the present cathedral and progressing through Radcliffe to Ribchester, while another road crossed Blackstone to Ilkley.
- He repeated this three times and pointed to the sky, which began to resound with thunder, huge ominous dark clouds started to gather, lightning forked once or twice.
- The hallway was very plain, stretching for about twenty or thirty yards forwards before it forked into two separate hallways.
- The stem is cast as a slender tree branch, one end forking into two tines; the spoon end is applied, shaped as a mussel shell with a gilt interior.
- The road had forked shortly beyond the rest stop.
- The land was a desert around him, but just beyond the reach of his fingertips, lightning forked from air to ground in continuous strikes.
- Lightning forked down from the sky, and thunder roared in sympathy moments later, adding to the hellish scene.
Synonyms
branch, split, divide, subdivide, separate, part, diverge, go in different directions, go separate ways, bifurcate, split in two
branch off
technical furcate, divaricate, ramify
1. 1.1no object, with adverbial of direction Take or constitute one route or the other at the point where a route divides.
  we forked north-west for Rannoch
  Example sentencesExamples
  At the top of the steps take the path forking left and cross a stile leading into a field.
  Just before the house, take a path that forks to the right and then go right again after 20 yards, following the edge of a field up to a minor road.
  She walked out of the neighborhood, and onto a jaded road that forked off at one point towards the market area.
  Take the track forking sharply left and follow this boggy walled route gradually uphill along a ridge for a further one and a half miles.
  Take the lane forking right by the pub which crosses a bridge over the beck and passes the Lister Arms.
  She strengthened her grip on my arm, steered me onto a smaller path which forked off the main route to the left.
  The views are for miles south down Wharfedale past Kilnsey Crag and for miles up the valley to where it forks west into Langstrothdale.
2. 1.2Computing Split (a process) into two or more independent processes.
  the attack can only work against a server that forks separate processes to handle client requests
  Example sentencesExamples
  I would go one step further, and fork the kernel - source - to remove any trace of DRM in any piece of code in the kernel source.
  Some parameters can be changed during the execution of the program, i.e., the number of threads forked in a parallel region.
2with object Dig or move (something) with a fork.
fork in some compost
Example sentencesExamples
- ‘Here, have some sausages,’ Jack said quietly, forking a number out of the frying pan onto his plate.
- One of the main features of the day was the steam threshing which involved forking the stooks into the steam-powered conveyor belt.
- They bring the steaks out on a silver platter and fork them onto your plate.
- After a crash course on dining with élan and forking food with flair, the surprise test came on china piled high with tricky-to-eat broccoli, sprouts and small sautéed potatoes.
- He deliberately forked a bite of food from his companion's plate, ate it.
- She swallowed, carefully averting her eyes as she forked a small amount of the spaghetti onto her plate, taking her time as she did so.
- Let the couscous plump up for 15 minutes, then fork it through to separate the grains.
- I cast my eyes down and begin desperately forking the salad.
- At least sardines are tiny and slippery and you can usually fork them through the tiny opening.
- Gabe walks outside and heads for the barn where he finds Stuart and Nick hard at work forking new hay for the animals' beds.
- Russ rolled his eyes as he forked some bland food into his mouth.
- Efforts were intensified in the summer battle against canal moss, and more men and equipment were brought in to fork it out of the canals and into dump trucks.
- The soil was forked over, hoed and then riddled to remove larger stones and other debris.
- Then, in the spring, apply a general-purpose fertiliser, such as Growmore, and lightly fork it in.
- The hay was forked into the hayshed, when the pile got so high; someone had to go up and ‘tramp’ it and throw it to the back of the hayshed.
- In a typical gesture of sibling acceptance, Hoss leaned over and forked Adam's untouched ham onto his own plate.
- ‘Here, let me,’ he said, forking a few sausages and putting them on her plate.
- It was forked onto the dray, walked down to pack it, the sides were raked neatly and then it was tied down with ropes and nets.
- Justin smiled with a slight incline of his head as he forked a bite of the blueberry pie.
- This morning I lifted the last of our parsnips, so that I could fork some well-rotted manure into the raised beds in preparation for this year's sowing.
3Chess
with object Attack (two pieces) simultaneously with one.
he has forked my bishop and knight
Example sentencesExamples
- When you forked my knight and king, that really was a good move.
- Black has just pushed his pawn to d5, forking White's Bishop and Knight.

Phrasal Verbs

fork something out (or over or up)

Pay money for something, especially reluctantly.
my car had been towed away and I had to fork out 70 quid
Example sentencesExamples
- In the meantime, he'll have to fork out $400 a night to continue staying at a nearby hotel.
- He also forked over $15,000 for a veterans trip to Las Vegas.
- But hey, it's Comic Relief, I should just fork out the cash and shut up moaning.
- No matter what type of store you walk into, you'll find all types of carefully engineered tricks that get you to fork over cash.
- He had high hopes for his birthday bash and even forked out £10,000 for a private party.
- Mary and the Countess conspire to get Martha to fork up some cash to save Downton Abbey, but grandma refuses.
- Even though 50 dollars seems steep, suck it up and fork it out for this or any of his other works.
- You have forked the money out every month for years and years and now they don't want to know you, they will not cover you for the things which you need cover for due to age.
- Instead of forking over the cash, you can make many kitchen gadgets yourself.
- One superfan has forked over $10,000 for a one-line speaking role.
Synonyms
pay, pay up, pay out

Derivatives

forkful

nounPlural forkfuls ˈfɔːkfʊlˈfɔrkˌfʊl

You still have to tend your risotto, pouring in the liquid as it is absorbed, but your arm can now rest up for the more important task of lifting forkfuls of yummy arborio rice to your mouth.
Example sentencesExamples
- It tastes marvelously clean between forkfuls of spring greens in cherry tomato vinaigrette, which comes on the side.
- I lifted up a forkful and let it drop back onto the plate.
- Mac bit into a forkful of the scrambled eggs and found them mildly spiced with a flavor he couldn't name.
- Do you sometimes long for a taste of your mom's beef dumpling or a forkful of warm wild blueberry pie in a flaky crust?

Origin

Old English forca, force (denoting a farm implement), based on Latin furca 'pitchfork, forked stick'; reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman French furke (also from Latin furca).

Rather than things to eat your dinner with, forks were originally agricultural implements. The fork used for holding food dates from medieval times, when Anglo-Saxon table manners were presumably affected by Norman ways. The word is from Latin furca ‘pitchfork, forked stick’. A snake's divided tongue is often described as forked, and snakes have been symbols of deceit since the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So to speak with forked tongue is to speak untruthfully. People have been forking out, or reluctantly paying money, since the 1830s or earlier. The phrase comes from the earlier literal meaning, ‘to divide or move with a fork’. An earlier use in connection with money is found in Morton's Fork although this is really an example of fork used for a dilemma in which either choice brings discredit. John Morton (c.1420–1500) was the Archbishop of Canterbury and minister of Henry VII who tried to levy forced loans by arguing that the rich could afford to pay, and so could those who lived frugally since they must have amassed savings.

Rhymes

auk, baulk, Bork, caulk (US calk), chalk, cork, Dundalk, Falk, gawk, hawk, Hawke, nork, orc, outwalk, pork, squawk, stalk, stork, talk, torc, torque, walk, york

Definition of fork in US English:

fork

nounfɔrkfôrk

1An implement with two or more prongs used for lifting food to the mouth or holding it when cutting.
Example sentencesExamples
- She turned her back to us and jabbed her food with a fork.
- A man often puts a piece of food on his fork, puts it in his mouth, swallows it, often too quickly to properly taste it, stops eating when he no longer feels hungry.
- She let him place a small bite of cheesecake in her mouth with a fork.
- Using a fork will pierce food and natural juices will be lost.
- He noticed her picking at the food nervously with her fork.
- Glancing down at his plate, he picked at the cold cuts beneath his fork before reluctantly lifting the food to his mouth.
- I heard the sound of metal utensils and plate colliding as the eater's spoons and forks battled with their food.
- I was sitting on an end, half consumed by darkness, which made it difficult to see what was travelling on my fork into my mouth.
- I glanced around at the rest of the family, forks in the left hand, knives in the right, busily pushing food onto their forks with their knives.
- And in the friendly skies, a friend, who flew business class, was given a plastic knife and a steel fork with his in-flight food.
- The herb mash was a tad too firm, although tasty enough, but that was more than made up for by the sheer quality, freshness and succulence of fish that virtually dissolved as the fork hit the mouth.
- As the children filled their forks with nourishing food, bodily complications were discussed.
- He put his fork of food down and pulled out his pocket watch.
- She bounced and grinned in response and happily stuffed the fork into her mouth, making sure to clean off every bit of food before she brought it back down again.
- Watching, under her lashes, as he sliced the tip of the ham, scraped it in the dressing and then swirled it through the salad before shovelling the laden fork into his mouth.
- Jim sat down and picked up a fork, examining the food before him.
- Someone's food fell off a fork into another's glass of wine.
- She pushed the food around with her fork, and closed her eyes.
- All these invite the sidelong glances of those who pretend not to be looking, as when in a restaurant, she struggles to keep the food on the fork long enough to deposit it in the mouth.
- Both were served with delicious green beans that still had a nice crunch to them and little roasted potatoes that you could easily pop into your mouth without a fork.
1. 1.1 A pronged tool used for digging or lifting in a garden or farm.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Scratch up the surface of any bare patches in the lawn using a garden fork or metal rake.
  Break up soil within the cutout using a garden fork.
  Another alternative, this one relating to the common problem of dandelions in the yard, is to use a weed fork, or a tool, to pull up the dandelions.
  Today, everything in the hall is sparkling, from the forks in the garden to those in the restaurant.
  Thrust 2 spading forks, back to back, into the clump and, using the handles of the forks as levers, pry the roots apart.
  As the soil was very friable due to being sieved into all treatment plots, rows were lifted with a garden fork and the retrieved roots were taken as representative of the root system.
  He could heave it with a garden fork into the sacks.
  Unlike the fork, the sod-coring tool removes cores of soil from the lawn instead of pushing the soil aside to create holes.
  Place forks, rakes and other pointed tools tines down.
  Spike poorly drained patches of lawn with a garden fork, top-dressing with sand to improve the drainage.
  I had a cosmic kind of thought yesterday while turning over some garden soil with the spading fork.
  Rhizomes are easy to pry up with a garden fork or shovel.
  Spiking the area with a garden fork driven into the lawn and gently moved backwards and forwards before removing will improve drainage.
  So I indicated that my goal henceforth was the space between two prongs of a garden fork, whereas his was the expanse between an apple tree and a pear tree in our fruity back garden.
  The first half ended with the skit entitled I didn't do it, in which Joseph plays a schoolboy arrested by the police for obscene language while working in the school garden with hoes, forks and agricultural tools.
  Sometimes referred to as a hand fork, the cultivator is used for weeding, and as its name implies, for cultivating the soil.
  Anne wets down a large pile of leaves and stirs it up with a spading fork.
  To avoid damaging the edible portions, use a garden fork to loosen the soil around the leeks first.
  The traditional gardeners' tools of spades, forks and trowels have been replaced by sketchpads, hammers and nails.
  Turn the mixture once or twice a week with a pitch fork or garden fork to help the process along.
2The point where something, especially a road or river, divides into two parts.
Example sentencesExamples
- Yet the path to class identity was not a straightforward one either in industrial or agricultural communities; there were many forks in the road, as recent local studies now reveal.
- For now though it's just an oncoming fork in the road - nothing I can do about it, as the entire process is entirely out of my hands.
- When faced with a fork in the road, you can always sit and wait for someone else to make the decision.
- He walks the road of the right, but finds himself at a fork in the road.
- Some students believe that they face a sharp fork in the road.
- There are forks in the road of history where men such as you stand up to be counted.
- There was no parallel track left and the fork in the road had come.
- He got as far as their Second XI before reaching a fork in the road.
- It was as if she stood at a junction, or a fork in the road, and there wasn't any correct way to go.
- A soldier came to a fork in the road and saw a nun standing there.
- As time has passed and we have come to critical forks in the road, the church itself has not always taken the right turn.
- Night had fallen prematurely as they turned a bend in the road, and finally caught sight of the river fork.
- Then strangely, as we came to a fork in the road - they departed, thanking me, as you might a bus driver.
- Where was the fork in the road for America, the turning point sought in all those thousands of books and articles?
- With an election approaching, the US now finds itself at a fork in the road.
- Park just before the house at the fork in the road, and begin the walk up the grassy path on the left immediately behind the house.
- Shaken but not stirred [or deterred] by this, we pressed on until we came to a fork in the road.
- But the opposite holds true if the house is at the end of a T-junction or in the fork of a road where it faces oncoming traffic.
- In 1884, near the three forks of the Missouri River, Bridgeville, Montana Territory, became an English colony almost overnight.
- He went on to note that the Flatheads, possessing large numbers of horses and lacking buffalo, traveled long distances to the forks of the Missouri River every fall to hunt.
1. 2.1 Either of the two parts where a road or river divides.
  Example sentencesExamples
  Halfway across, the trail runs back out to the eastern edge overlooking another fork of the canyon.
  It's more of a thumbnail character study of a guy who has apparently taken the wrong fork on every road he's traveled.
  At Kattikulam, the right fork of the road leads to Nagarhole and the left to Tirunelli through elephant sanctuaries and bamboo forests.
  He didn't take the left fork in the road, he paid the consequences.
  However, when the taxi driver took the fork in the road towards Manhattan rather than Long Island, a strange sensation washed over me.
  This band definitely took the right fork in the road.
  Do not take the south fork in the road or you will head to Ric Flair's Millennial Bog.
  So, wasting no more time, I entered the maze and turned down the right fork in the path.
  Ignore left fork and enter grounds of school.
  His head raised he looked first down one fork and then down the other, finally choosing one and setting off again.
  If a player made a mistake when making their way through a lair in that game, it could mean certain death as they tried to get back and try a different fork in the road.
  About five hundred yards down this lane it forks, and for those pegs around the weir you should take the right hand fork, parking near the footbridge that crosses the canal by the weir.
  A left fork from the road led me along a track up to it.
3A unit consisting of a pair of supports in which a bicycle or motorcycle wheel revolves.
Example sentencesExamples
- But installing them such makes it possible to drop the bicycle forks down on your vehicle roof if you slip.
- Vintage steel wheels and forks are hard to find.
- The best set up for a race fork would be light and stiff.
- There was a hood ornament made out of forks shaped into a pair of horns (very Texan, I thought).
- His bike had shock absorbers on the front forks to absorb bumps, her bicycle had none.
- We see children come into the shop, asking us to blow their tyres up, and we find brakes that don't work, forks badly bent and wheels buckled.
- I can now answer the question with data and affirm that roof racks do not put excess stress on forks.
- The ZAP system is an add-on, tire-drive system that mounts the motor to the front or rear bicycle forks.
- Each wheel was carried in a fork formed by a pair of hydraulic shock absorber struts.
- Here is my take on the issue of roof racks and the stress they cause on forks and their dropouts.
- The ladder arms are brought together at the front and angled up to become the headstock for the motorcycle forks, which are kept at a more vertical angle to allow for the extremely sharp turns.
- The wired mounting hardware works with oversized road bars and a variety of forks, but the wheel magnet only fits standard spokes.
- It was used to generate 3D models of many of the bike's components, including its forks, handlebars and even the cyclists' helmets.
- Big knobby tires, suspension fork and disc brakes make this one mean extreme machine, or at least one that looks the part.
- Can you tell me what the benefit is of having a carbon fork?
- All Reba forks use air spring technology and offer external or internal adjustment options.
- The front wheel attaches to the fork, which in turn links via bearings to the head set on the front of the frame.
- The fork comes with disc brake mounts if a person would ever be interested in upgrading.
- The head stock was badly worn, which meant the forks carrying the front wheel were tenuously attached to the bikes frame.
4A flash of forked lightning.
Example sentencesExamples
- There was a loud crack of thunder, then a long fork of lightning and sparks emitted from nowhere and struck the figure right in the chest.
- He let loose with a short hiss of pain just as the crowd gasped and began running home as forks of lightning shot from the clouds above.
- Lightning forks scratched their summits and distant rainstorms hung like negligees billowing in the clean air.
- If things weren't hard enough for Dr. Steve and his staff, the weather took a turn for the worse and forks of lightning nearly missed the boat many times.
- The screaming subsided and the forks of lightning vanished with a descending hiss.
- A brilliant fork of lightning erupted from the dark grey clouds, a clap of thunder following closely behind.
- She shivered, seeing blackness spread out like forks of lightning from the sun.
- The entire sky writhed in agony above him, split by gigantic forks of lightning flashing between the clouds.
- Just then, a fork of light streaked across the sky and a deafening roar filled her ears.
- A single fork of lightning slashed the sky, hitting the tree in front of her.
- A fork of lightning illuminated the imposing shape that hovered in the doorway.
- The forks that you can see are actually nitrogen and oxygen, which has been converted into plasma.
- She takes a step towards the edge, a branching fork of lightning flaring across the sky behind her, rain pelting her face but failing to muss her hair.
- It's a worship dance to the god of thunder and lightning in which the arms and legs mimic the claps of thunder and forks of lightning.
- A single fork of white lightning slashed the sky, hitting the willow in front of her.
- A bright fork of lightning struck the clouds ahead, and the outburst of thunder was deafening.
- Their linings were tainted a blood-red hue - a fork of lightning flashed every now and then.
- I made it as quick as possible - the rain was still being blown hard against the windows and I could see large forks of lightning through the sheets of rain.
- Great booms and rumbles of electricity and bright forks of light above the London skyline - and the kind of excitement, tingling and calm that can only accompany a storm.
- Just as a fork of lightening flashed past her window, two figures appeared in the doorway.
5Chess
A simultaneous attack on two or more pieces by one piece.
Example sentencesExamples
- Forks are covered in the chapter ‘The Double Attack,’ although many would consider forks to be a separate species of double attack.
- A fork occurs when one piece attacks two or more enemy units at the same time.

verbfɔrkfôrk

1no object (especially of a road or other route) divide into two parts.
the place where the road forks
Example sentencesExamples
- The land was a desert around him, but just beyond the reach of his fingertips, lightning forked from air to ground in continuous strikes.
- You use anything you can, think on your feet, and talk in a way that's often very ambiguous, although it sounds very specific, and allows you to fork off in different directions.
- Conversely, the trail intersections homeward-bound ants encounter have branches that fork at a sharp angle and a gentle one.
- They continued down the path until it forked off into two paths, one going right, and the other going left.
- The stem is cast as a slender tree branch, one end forking into two tines; the spoon end is applied, shaped as a mussel shell with a gilt interior.
- Narrow dirt paths forked from the stairs, leading to even denser rows of crosses amongst soft weeds.
- Frequent bolts of lightning forked through the sky, lighting up her surroundings with an eerie brightness.
- After a short time, they came across a bend in the dirt street, where two paths forked out.
- The hallway was very plain, stretching for about twenty or thirty yards forwards before it forked into two separate hallways.
- The road had forked shortly beyond the rest stop.
- As the gates started to open, Wilton could see a trail of light leading in through them, up the driveway, and in behind a large sign at the place where the road forked.
- He scampered into the shaft and continued for some hundred yards until the path abruptly forked once more.
- However, when he came near a road that forked in three directions, the people Iokaste had described came in a colt-drawn carriage and tried to get him off the road and shoved him.
- How does such a philosophy of life differ from the theory of multiple realities and infinitely forking paths?
- The path behind them forked off; a small hillock just a short hundred metres away.
- Manchester was a meeting and dividing point of Roman roads, forking at the site of the present cathedral and progressing through Radcliffe to Ribchester, while another road crossed Blackstone to Ilkley.
- Lightning forked down from the sky, and thunder roared in sympathy moments later, adding to the hellish scene.
- Sometimes the lightening forked across the sky like a crack in the dark firmament.
- He repeated this three times and pointed to the sky, which began to resound with thunder, huge ominous dark clouds started to gather, lightning forked once or twice.
- The road forked and turned dangerously several times.
Synonyms
branch, split, divide, subdivide, separate, part, diverge, go in different directions, go separate ways, bifurcate, split in two
1. 1.1no object, with adverbial of direction Take or constitute one part or the other at the point where a road or other route divides.
  a minor road forked left
  Example sentencesExamples
  She strengthened her grip on my arm, steered me onto a smaller path which forked off the main route to the left.
  She walked out of the neighborhood, and onto a jaded road that forked off at one point towards the market area.
  Take the track forking sharply left and follow this boggy walled route gradually uphill along a ridge for a further one and a half miles.
  Just before the house, take a path that forks to the right and then go right again after 20 yards, following the edge of a field up to a minor road.
  At the top of the steps take the path forking left and cross a stile leading into a field.
  The views are for miles south down Wharfedale past Kilnsey Crag and for miles up the valley to where it forks west into Langstrothdale.
  Take the lane forking right by the pub which crosses a bridge over the beck and passes the Lister Arms.
2with object Dig, lift, or manipulate (something) with a fork.
fork in some compost
Example sentencesExamples
- Let the couscous plump up for 15 minutes, then fork it through to separate the grains.
- The soil was forked over, hoed and then riddled to remove larger stones and other debris.
- This morning I lifted the last of our parsnips, so that I could fork some well-rotted manure into the raised beds in preparation for this year's sowing.
- I cast my eyes down and begin desperately forking the salad.
- He deliberately forked a bite of food from his companion's plate, ate it.
- They bring the steaks out on a silver platter and fork them onto your plate.
- Gabe walks outside and heads for the barn where he finds Stuart and Nick hard at work forking new hay for the animals' beds.
- She swallowed, carefully averting her eyes as she forked a small amount of the spaghetti onto her plate, taking her time as she did so.
- Efforts were intensified in the summer battle against canal moss, and more men and equipment were brought in to fork it out of the canals and into dump trucks.
- After a crash course on dining with élan and forking food with flair, the surprise test came on china piled high with tricky-to-eat broccoli, sprouts and small sautéed potatoes.
- Justin smiled with a slight incline of his head as he forked a bite of the blueberry pie.
- Then, in the spring, apply a general-purpose fertiliser, such as Growmore, and lightly fork it in.
- The hay was forked into the hayshed, when the pile got so high; someone had to go up and ‘tramp’ it and throw it to the back of the hayshed.
- Russ rolled his eyes as he forked some bland food into his mouth.
- It was forked onto the dray, walked down to pack it, the sides were raked neatly and then it was tied down with ropes and nets.
- In a typical gesture of sibling acceptance, Hoss leaned over and forked Adam's untouched ham onto his own plate.
- ‘Here, have some sausages,’ Jack said quietly, forking a number out of the frying pan onto his plate.
- ‘Here, let me,’ he said, forking a few sausages and putting them on her plate.
- At least sardines are tiny and slippery and you can usually fork them through the tiny opening.
- One of the main features of the day was the steam threshing which involved forking the stooks into the steam-powered conveyor belt.
3Chess
with object Attack (two pieces) simultaneously with one piece.
Example sentencesExamples
- Black has just pushed his pawn to d5, forking White's Bishop and Knight.
- When you forked my knight and king, that really was a good move.

Phrasal Verbs

fork something over/out/up (or fork over/out/up)

Pay money for something, especially reluctantly.
Example sentencesExamples
- You have forked the money out every month for years and years and now they don't want to know you, they will not cover you for the things which you need cover for due to age.
- He also forked over $15,000 for a veterans trip to Las Vegas.
- One superfan has forked over $10,000 for a one-line speaking role.
- Mary and the Countess conspire to get Martha to fork up some cash to save Downton Abbey, but grandma refuses.
- No matter what type of store you walk into, you'll find all types of carefully engineered tricks that get you to fork over cash.
- Even though 50 dollars seems steep, suck it up and fork it out for this or any of his other works.
- But hey, it's Comic Relief, I should just fork out the cash and shut up moaning.
- He had high hopes for his birthday bash and even forked out £10,000 for a private party.
- In the meantime, he'll have to fork out $400 a night to continue staying at a nearby hotel.
- Instead of forking over the cash, you can make many kitchen gadgets yourself.
Synonyms
pay, pay up, pay out

Origin

Old English forca, force (denoting a farm implement), based on Latin furca ‘pitchfork, forked stick’; reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman French furke (also from Latin furca).

单词	fork
释义	Definition of fork in English: fork noun fɔːkfɔrk 1An implement with two or more prongs used for lifting food to the mouth or holding it when cutting. Example sentencesExamples A man often puts a piece of food on his fork, puts it in his mouth, swallows it, often too quickly to properly taste it, stops eating when he no longer feels hungry. Watching, under her lashes, as he sliced the tip of the ham, scraped it in the dressing and then swirled it through the salad before shovelling the laden fork into his mouth. The herb mash was a tad too firm, although tasty enough, but that was more than made up for by the sheer quality, freshness and succulence of fish that virtually dissolved as the fork hit the mouth. She bounced and grinned in response and happily stuffed the fork into her mouth, making sure to clean off every bit of food before she brought it back down again. I was sitting on an end, half consumed by darkness, which made it difficult to see what was travelling on my fork into my mouth. All these invite the sidelong glances of those who pretend not to be looking, as when in a restaurant, she struggles to keep the food on the fork long enough to deposit it in the mouth. He noticed her picking at the food nervously with her fork. Someone's food fell off a fork into another's glass of wine. He put his fork of food down and pulled out his pocket watch. I heard the sound of metal utensils and plate colliding as the eater's spoons and forks battled with their food. She turned her back to us and jabbed her food with a fork. I glanced around at the rest of the family, forks in the left hand, knives in the right, busily pushing food onto their forks with their knives. Using a fork will pierce food and natural juices will be lost. She let him place a small bite of cheesecake in her mouth with a fork. As the children filled their forks with nourishing food, bodily complications were discussed. Both were served with delicious green beans that still had a nice crunch to them and little roasted potatoes that you could easily pop into your mouth without a fork. Jim sat down and picked up a fork, examining the food before him. She pushed the food around with her fork, and closed her eyes. And in the friendly skies, a friend, who flew business class, was given a plastic knife and a steel fork with his in-flight food. Glancing down at his plate, he picked at the cold cuts beneath his fork before reluctantly lifting the food to his mouth. 1.1 A farm or garden tool with three or four prongs, used for digging or lifting. Example sentencesExamples Thrust 2 spading forks, back to back, into the clump and, using the handles of the forks as levers, pry the roots apart. Break up soil within the cutout using a garden fork. To avoid damaging the edible portions, use a garden fork to loosen the soil around the leeks first. Unlike the fork, the sod-coring tool removes cores of soil from the lawn instead of pushing the soil aside to create holes. Another alternative, this one relating to the common problem of dandelions in the yard, is to use a weed fork, or a tool, to pull up the dandelions. Spiking the area with a garden fork driven into the lawn and gently moved backwards and forwards before removing will improve drainage. Turn the mixture once or twice a week with a pitch fork or garden fork to help the process along. He could heave it with a garden fork into the sacks. Sometimes referred to as a hand fork, the cultivator is used for weeding, and as its name implies, for cultivating the soil. Scratch up the surface of any bare patches in the lawn using a garden fork or metal rake. As the soil was very friable due to being sieved into all treatment plots, rows were lifted with a garden fork and the retrieved roots were taken as representative of the root system. The first half ended with the skit entitled I didn't do it, in which Joseph plays a schoolboy arrested by the police for obscene language while working in the school garden with hoes, forks and agricultural tools. Anne wets down a large pile of leaves and stirs it up with a spading fork. Place forks, rakes and other pointed tools tines down. The traditional gardeners' tools of spades, forks and trowels have been replaced by sketchpads, hammers and nails. So I indicated that my goal henceforth was the space between two prongs of a garden fork, whereas his was the expanse between an apple tree and a pear tree in our fruity back garden. I had a cosmic kind of thought yesterday while turning over some garden soil with the spading fork. Rhizomes are easy to pry up with a garden fork or shovel. Spike poorly drained patches of lawn with a garden fork, top-dressing with sand to improve the drainage. Today, everything in the hall is sparkling, from the forks in the garden to those in the restaurant. 1.2as modifier Denoting a light meal or buffet that may be eaten solely with a fork, while standing. a hot fork buffet Example sentencesExamples A Right Royal Jubilee Recipe Book includes menu ideas for a fork lunch, dozens of dishes and is rounded off with a recipe for Commonwealth cake. The evening will commence at 7.30pm with a hot fork buffet at 8pm in the Hydro Suite with all the trimmings and award winning decorations. Baked chicken is a fork food, but fried chicken a finger food, depending on how it's fried. 2The point where something, especially a road or river, divides into two parts. turn right at the next fork Example sentencesExamples When faced with a fork in the road, you can always sit and wait for someone else to make the decision. As time has passed and we have come to critical forks in the road, the church itself has not always taken the right turn. He got as far as their Second XI before reaching a fork in the road. Park just before the house at the fork in the road, and begin the walk up the grassy path on the left immediately behind the house. Some students believe that they face a sharp fork in the road. It was as if she stood at a junction, or a fork in the road, and there wasn't any correct way to go. There are forks in the road of history where men such as you stand up to be counted. But the opposite holds true if the house is at the end of a T-junction or in the fork of a road where it faces oncoming traffic. Shaken but not stirred [or deterred] by this, we pressed on until we came to a fork in the road. There was no parallel track left and the fork in the road had come. Where was the fork in the road for America, the turning point sought in all those thousands of books and articles? Night had fallen prematurely as they turned a bend in the road, and finally caught sight of the river fork. In 1884, near the three forks of the Missouri River, Bridgeville, Montana Territory, became an English colony almost overnight. For now though it's just an oncoming fork in the road - nothing I can do about it, as the entire process is entirely out of my hands. He walks the road of the right, but finds himself at a fork in the road. A soldier came to a fork in the road and saw a nun standing there. Yet the path to class identity was not a straightforward one either in industrial or agricultural communities; there were many forks in the road, as recent local studies now reveal. With an election approaching, the US now finds itself at a fork in the road. He went on to note that the Flatheads, possessing large numbers of horses and lacking buffalo, traveled long distances to the forks of the Missouri River every fall to hunt. Then strangely, as we came to a fork in the road - they departed, thanking me, as you might a bus driver. 2.1 Either of two forked parts. the left fork goes on to the village Example sentencesExamples At Kattikulam, the right fork of the road leads to Nagarhole and the left to Tirunelli through elephant sanctuaries and bamboo forests. However, when the taxi driver took the fork in the road towards Manhattan rather than Long Island, a strange sensation washed over me. He didn't take the left fork in the road, he paid the consequences. Halfway across, the trail runs back out to the eastern edge overlooking another fork of the canyon. Do not take the south fork in the road or you will head to Ric Flair's Millennial Bog. If a player made a mistake when making their way through a lair in that game, it could mean certain death as they tried to get back and try a different fork in the road. So, wasting no more time, I entered the maze and turned down the right fork in the path. Ignore left fork and enter grounds of school. It's more of a thumbnail character study of a guy who has apparently taken the wrong fork on every road he's traveled. A left fork from the road led me along a track up to it. This band definitely took the right fork in the road. About five hundred yards down this lane it forks, and for those pegs around the weir you should take the right hand fork, parking near the footbridge that crosses the canal by the weir. His head raised he looked first down one fork and then down the other, finally choosing one and setting off again. 3usually forksEach of a pair of supports in which a bicycle or motorcycle wheel revolves. Example sentencesExamples I can now answer the question with data and affirm that roof racks do not put excess stress on forks. Can you tell me what the benefit is of having a carbon fork? The ladder arms are brought together at the front and angled up to become the headstock for the motorcycle forks, which are kept at a more vertical angle to allow for the extremely sharp turns. His bike had shock absorbers on the front forks to absorb bumps, her bicycle had none. The fork comes with disc brake mounts if a person would ever be interested in upgrading. All Reba forks use air spring technology and offer external or internal adjustment options. It was used to generate 3D models of many of the bike's components, including its forks, handlebars and even the cyclists' helmets. The front wheel attaches to the fork, which in turn links via bearings to the head set on the front of the frame. The wired mounting hardware works with oversized road bars and a variety of forks, but the wheel magnet only fits standard spokes. Vintage steel wheels and forks are hard to find. There was a hood ornament made out of forks shaped into a pair of horns (very Texan, I thought). Here is my take on the issue of roof racks and the stress they cause on forks and their dropouts. But installing them such makes it possible to drop the bicycle forks down on your vehicle roof if you slip. The best set up for a race fork would be light and stiff. The ZAP system is an add-on, tire-drive system that mounts the motor to the front or rear bicycle forks. Each wheel was carried in a fork formed by a pair of hydraulic shock absorber struts. We see children come into the shop, asking us to blow their tyres up, and we find brakes that don't work, forks badly bent and wheels buckled. The head stock was badly worn, which meant the forks carrying the front wheel were tenuously attached to the bikes frame. Big knobby tires, suspension fork and disc brakes make this one mean extreme machine, or at least one that looks the part. 4A flash of forked lightning. Example sentencesExamples The forks that you can see are actually nitrogen and oxygen, which has been converted into plasma. Lightning forks scratched their summits and distant rainstorms hung like negligees billowing in the clean air. A fork of lightning illuminated the imposing shape that hovered in the doorway. A single fork of lightning slashed the sky, hitting the tree in front of her. Great booms and rumbles of electricity and bright forks of light above the London skyline - and the kind of excitement, tingling and calm that can only accompany a storm. I made it as quick as possible - the rain was still being blown hard against the windows and I could see large forks of lightning through the sheets of rain. A bright fork of lightning struck the clouds ahead, and the outburst of thunder was deafening. A single fork of white lightning slashed the sky, hitting the willow in front of her. She takes a step towards the edge, a branching fork of lightning flaring across the sky behind her, rain pelting her face but failing to muss her hair. The screaming subsided and the forks of lightning vanished with a descending hiss. Their linings were tainted a blood-red hue - a fork of lightning flashed every now and then. Just as a fork of lightening flashed past her window, two figures appeared in the doorway. There was a loud crack of thunder, then a long fork of lightning and sparks emitted from nowhere and struck the figure right in the chest. Just then, a fork of light streaked across the sky and a deafening roar filled her ears. If things weren't hard enough for Dr. Steve and his staff, the weather took a turn for the worse and forks of lightning nearly missed the boat many times. A brilliant fork of lightning erupted from the dark grey clouds, a clap of thunder following closely behind. It's a worship dance to the god of thunder and lightning in which the arms and legs mimic the claps of thunder and forks of lightning. She shivered, seeing blackness spread out like forks of lightning from the sun. The entire sky writhed in agony above him, split by gigantic forks of lightning flashing between the clouds. He let loose with a short hiss of pain just as the crowd gasped and began running home as forks of lightning shot from the clouds above. 5Chess A simultaneous attack on two or more pieces by one. Example sentencesExamples Forks are covered in the chapter ‘The Double Attack,’ although many would consider forks to be a separate species of double attack. A fork occurs when one piece attacks two or more enemy units at the same time. verb fɔːkfɔrk 1no object (especially of a route) divide into two parts. the place where the road forks Example sentencesExamples However, when he came near a road that forked in three directions, the people Iokaste had described came in a colt-drawn carriage and tried to get him off the road and shoved him. You use anything you can, think on your feet, and talk in a way that's often very ambiguous, although it sounds very specific, and allows you to fork off in different directions. As the gates started to open, Wilton could see a trail of light leading in through them, up the driveway, and in behind a large sign at the place where the road forked. Sometimes the lightening forked across the sky like a crack in the dark firmament. Narrow dirt paths forked from the stairs, leading to even denser rows of crosses amongst soft weeds. He scampered into the shaft and continued for some hundred yards until the path abruptly forked once more. They continued down the path until it forked off into two paths, one going right, and the other going left. How does such a philosophy of life differ from the theory of multiple realities and infinitely forking paths? Frequent bolts of lightning forked through the sky, lighting up her surroundings with an eerie brightness. The path behind them forked off; a small hillock just a short hundred metres away. Conversely, the trail intersections homeward-bound ants encounter have branches that fork at a sharp angle and a gentle one. After a short time, they came across a bend in the dirt street, where two paths forked out. The road forked and turned dangerously several times. Manchester was a meeting and dividing point of Roman roads, forking at the site of the present cathedral and progressing through Radcliffe to Ribchester, while another road crossed Blackstone to Ilkley. He repeated this three times and pointed to the sky, which began to resound with thunder, huge ominous dark clouds started to gather, lightning forked once or twice. The hallway was very plain, stretching for about twenty or thirty yards forwards before it forked into two separate hallways. The stem is cast as a slender tree branch, one end forking into two tines; the spoon end is applied, shaped as a mussel shell with a gilt interior. The road had forked shortly beyond the rest stop. The land was a desert around him, but just beyond the reach of his fingertips, lightning forked from air to ground in continuous strikes. Lightning forked down from the sky, and thunder roared in sympathy moments later, adding to the hellish scene. Synonyms branch, split, divide, subdivide, separate, part, diverge, go in different directions, go separate ways, bifurcate, split in two branch off technical furcate, divaricate, ramify 1.1no object, with adverbial of direction Take or constitute one route or the other at the point where a route divides. we forked north-west for Rannoch Example sentencesExamples At the top of the steps take the path forking left and cross a stile leading into a field. Just before the house, take a path that forks to the right and then go right again after 20 yards, following the edge of a field up to a minor road. She walked out of the neighborhood, and onto a jaded road that forked off at one point towards the market area. Take the track forking sharply left and follow this boggy walled route gradually uphill along a ridge for a further one and a half miles. Take the lane forking right by the pub which crosses a bridge over the beck and passes the Lister Arms. She strengthened her grip on my arm, steered me onto a smaller path which forked off the main route to the left. The views are for miles south down Wharfedale past Kilnsey Crag and for miles up the valley to where it forks west into Langstrothdale. 1.2Computing Split (a process) into two or more independent processes. the attack can only work against a server that forks separate processes to handle client requests Example sentencesExamples I would go one step further, and fork the kernel - source - to remove any trace of DRM in any piece of code in the kernel source. Some parameters can be changed during the execution of the program, i.e., the number of threads forked in a parallel region. 2with object Dig or move (something) with a fork. fork in some compost Example sentencesExamples ‘Here, have some sausages,’ Jack said quietly, forking a number out of the frying pan onto his plate. One of the main features of the day was the steam threshing which involved forking the stooks into the steam-powered conveyor belt. They bring the steaks out on a silver platter and fork them onto your plate. After a crash course on dining with élan and forking food with flair, the surprise test came on china piled high with tricky-to-eat broccoli, sprouts and small sautéed potatoes. He deliberately forked a bite of food from his companion's plate, ate it. She swallowed, carefully averting her eyes as she forked a small amount of the spaghetti onto her plate, taking her time as she did so. Let the couscous plump up for 15 minutes, then fork it through to separate the grains. I cast my eyes down and begin desperately forking the salad. At least sardines are tiny and slippery and you can usually fork them through the tiny opening. Gabe walks outside and heads for the barn where he finds Stuart and Nick hard at work forking new hay for the animals' beds. Russ rolled his eyes as he forked some bland food into his mouth. Efforts were intensified in the summer battle against canal moss, and more men and equipment were brought in to fork it out of the canals and into dump trucks. The soil was forked over, hoed and then riddled to remove larger stones and other debris. Then, in the spring, apply a general-purpose fertiliser, such as Growmore, and lightly fork it in. The hay was forked into the hayshed, when the pile got so high; someone had to go up and ‘tramp’ it and throw it to the back of the hayshed. In a typical gesture of sibling acceptance, Hoss leaned over and forked Adam's untouched ham onto his own plate. ‘Here, let me,’ he said, forking a few sausages and putting them on her plate. It was forked onto the dray, walked down to pack it, the sides were raked neatly and then it was tied down with ropes and nets. Justin smiled with a slight incline of his head as he forked a bite of the blueberry pie. This morning I lifted the last of our parsnips, so that I could fork some well-rotted manure into the raised beds in preparation for this year's sowing. 3Chess with object Attack (two pieces) simultaneously with one. he has forked my bishop and knight Example sentencesExamples When you forked my knight and king, that really was a good move. Black has just pushed his pawn to d5, forking White's Bishop and Knight. Phrasal Verbs fork something out (or over or up) Pay money for something, especially reluctantly. my car had been towed away and I had to fork out 70 quid Example sentencesExamples In the meantime, he'll have to fork out $400 a night to continue staying at a nearby hotel. He also forked over $15,000 for a veterans trip to Las Vegas. But hey, it's Comic Relief, I should just fork out the cash and shut up moaning. No matter what type of store you walk into, you'll find all types of carefully engineered tricks that get you to fork over cash. He had high hopes for his birthday bash and even forked out £10,000 for a private party. Mary and the Countess conspire to get Martha to fork up some cash to save Downton Abbey, but grandma refuses. Even though 50 dollars seems steep, suck it up and fork it out for this or any of his other works. You have forked the money out every month for years and years and now they don't want to know you, they will not cover you for the things which you need cover for due to age. Instead of forking over the cash, you can make many kitchen gadgets yourself. One superfan has forked over $10,000 for a one-line speaking role. Synonyms pay, pay up, pay out Derivatives forkful nounPlural forkfuls ˈfɔːkfʊlˈfɔrkˌfʊl You still have to tend your risotto, pouring in the liquid as it is absorbed, but your arm can now rest up for the more important task of lifting forkfuls of yummy arborio rice to your mouth. Example sentencesExamples It tastes marvelously clean between forkfuls of spring greens in cherry tomato vinaigrette, which comes on the side. I lifted up a forkful and let it drop back onto the plate. Mac bit into a forkful of the scrambled eggs and found them mildly spiced with a flavor he couldn't name. Do you sometimes long for a taste of your mom's beef dumpling or a forkful of warm wild blueberry pie in a flaky crust? Origin Old English forca, force (denoting a farm implement), based on Latin furca 'pitchfork, forked stick'; reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman French furke (also from Latin furca). Rather than things to eat your dinner with, forks were originally agricultural implements. The fork used for holding food dates from medieval times, when Anglo-Saxon table manners were presumably affected by Norman ways. The word is from Latin furca ‘pitchfork, forked stick’. A snake's divided tongue is often described as forked, and snakes have been symbols of deceit since the serpent that tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So to speak with forked tongue is to speak untruthfully. People have been forking out, or reluctantly paying money, since the 1830s or earlier. The phrase comes from the earlier literal meaning, ‘to divide or move with a fork’. An earlier use in connection with money is found in Morton's Fork although this is really an example of fork used for a dilemma in which either choice brings discredit. John Morton (c.1420–1500) was the Archbishop of Canterbury and minister of Henry VII who tried to levy forced loans by arguing that the rich could afford to pay, and so could those who lived frugally since they must have amassed savings. Rhymes auk, baulk, Bork, caulk (US calk), chalk, cork, Dundalk, Falk, gawk, hawk, Hawke, nork, orc, outwalk, pork, squawk, stalk, stork, talk, torc, torque, walk, york noun.1 phr.v. Definition of fork in US English: fork nounfɔrkfôrk 1An implement with two or more prongs used for lifting food to the mouth or holding it when cutting. Example sentencesExamples She turned her back to us and jabbed her food with a fork. A man often puts a piece of food on his fork, puts it in his mouth, swallows it, often too quickly to properly taste it, stops eating when he no longer feels hungry. She let him place a small bite of cheesecake in her mouth with a fork. Using a fork will pierce food and natural juices will be lost. He noticed her picking at the food nervously with her fork. Glancing down at his plate, he picked at the cold cuts beneath his fork before reluctantly lifting the food to his mouth. I heard the sound of metal utensils and plate colliding as the eater's spoons and forks battled with their food. I was sitting on an end, half consumed by darkness, which made it difficult to see what was travelling on my fork into my mouth. I glanced around at the rest of the family, forks in the left hand, knives in the right, busily pushing food onto their forks with their knives. And in the friendly skies, a friend, who flew business class, was given a plastic knife and a steel fork with his in-flight food. The herb mash was a tad too firm, although tasty enough, but that was more than made up for by the sheer quality, freshness and succulence of fish that virtually dissolved as the fork hit the mouth. As the children filled their forks with nourishing food, bodily complications were discussed. He put his fork of food down and pulled out his pocket watch. She bounced and grinned in response and happily stuffed the fork into her mouth, making sure to clean off every bit of food before she brought it back down again. Watching, under her lashes, as he sliced the tip of the ham, scraped it in the dressing and then swirled it through the salad before shovelling the laden fork into his mouth. Jim sat down and picked up a fork, examining the food before him. Someone's food fell off a fork into another's glass of wine. She pushed the food around with her fork, and closed her eyes. All these invite the sidelong glances of those who pretend not to be looking, as when in a restaurant, she struggles to keep the food on the fork long enough to deposit it in the mouth. Both were served with delicious green beans that still had a nice crunch to them and little roasted potatoes that you could easily pop into your mouth without a fork. 1.1 A pronged tool used for digging or lifting in a garden or farm. Example sentencesExamples Scratch up the surface of any bare patches in the lawn using a garden fork or metal rake. Break up soil within the cutout using a garden fork. Another alternative, this one relating to the common problem of dandelions in the yard, is to use a weed fork, or a tool, to pull up the dandelions. Today, everything in the hall is sparkling, from the forks in the garden to those in the restaurant. Thrust 2 spading forks, back to back, into the clump and, using the handles of the forks as levers, pry the roots apart. As the soil was very friable due to being sieved into all treatment plots, rows were lifted with a garden fork and the retrieved roots were taken as representative of the root system. He could heave it with a garden fork into the sacks. Unlike the fork, the sod-coring tool removes cores of soil from the lawn instead of pushing the soil aside to create holes. Place forks, rakes and other pointed tools tines down. Spike poorly drained patches of lawn with a garden fork, top-dressing with sand to improve the drainage. I had a cosmic kind of thought yesterday while turning over some garden soil with the spading fork. Rhizomes are easy to pry up with a garden fork or shovel. Spiking the area with a garden fork driven into the lawn and gently moved backwards and forwards before removing will improve drainage. So I indicated that my goal henceforth was the space between two prongs of a garden fork, whereas his was the expanse between an apple tree and a pear tree in our fruity back garden. The first half ended with the skit entitled I didn't do it, in which Joseph plays a schoolboy arrested by the police for obscene language while working in the school garden with hoes, forks and agricultural tools. Sometimes referred to as a hand fork, the cultivator is used for weeding, and as its name implies, for cultivating the soil. Anne wets down a large pile of leaves and stirs it up with a spading fork. To avoid damaging the edible portions, use a garden fork to loosen the soil around the leeks first. The traditional gardeners' tools of spades, forks and trowels have been replaced by sketchpads, hammers and nails. Turn the mixture once or twice a week with a pitch fork or garden fork to help the process along. 2The point where something, especially a road or river, divides into two parts. Example sentencesExamples Yet the path to class identity was not a straightforward one either in industrial or agricultural communities; there were many forks in the road, as recent local studies now reveal. For now though it's just an oncoming fork in the road - nothing I can do about it, as the entire process is entirely out of my hands. When faced with a fork in the road, you can always sit and wait for someone else to make the decision. He walks the road of the right, but finds himself at a fork in the road. Some students believe that they face a sharp fork in the road. There are forks in the road of history where men such as you stand up to be counted. There was no parallel track left and the fork in the road had come. He got as far as their Second XI before reaching a fork in the road. It was as if she stood at a junction, or a fork in the road, and there wasn't any correct way to go. A soldier came to a fork in the road and saw a nun standing there. As time has passed and we have come to critical forks in the road, the church itself has not always taken the right turn. Night had fallen prematurely as they turned a bend in the road, and finally caught sight of the river fork. Then strangely, as we came to a fork in the road - they departed, thanking me, as you might a bus driver. Where was the fork in the road for America, the turning point sought in all those thousands of books and articles? With an election approaching, the US now finds itself at a fork in the road. Park just before the house at the fork in the road, and begin the walk up the grassy path on the left immediately behind the house. Shaken but not stirred [or deterred] by this, we pressed on until we came to a fork in the road. But the opposite holds true if the house is at the end of a T-junction or in the fork of a road where it faces oncoming traffic. In 1884, near the three forks of the Missouri River, Bridgeville, Montana Territory, became an English colony almost overnight. He went on to note that the Flatheads, possessing large numbers of horses and lacking buffalo, traveled long distances to the forks of the Missouri River every fall to hunt. 2.1 Either of the two parts where a road or river divides. Example sentencesExamples Halfway across, the trail runs back out to the eastern edge overlooking another fork of the canyon. It's more of a thumbnail character study of a guy who has apparently taken the wrong fork on every road he's traveled. At Kattikulam, the right fork of the road leads to Nagarhole and the left to Tirunelli through elephant sanctuaries and bamboo forests. He didn't take the left fork in the road, he paid the consequences. However, when the taxi driver took the fork in the road towards Manhattan rather than Long Island, a strange sensation washed over me. This band definitely took the right fork in the road. Do not take the south fork in the road or you will head to Ric Flair's Millennial Bog. So, wasting no more time, I entered the maze and turned down the right fork in the path. Ignore left fork and enter grounds of school. His head raised he looked first down one fork and then down the other, finally choosing one and setting off again. If a player made a mistake when making their way through a lair in that game, it could mean certain death as they tried to get back and try a different fork in the road. About five hundred yards down this lane it forks, and for those pegs around the weir you should take the right hand fork, parking near the footbridge that crosses the canal by the weir. A left fork from the road led me along a track up to it. 3A unit consisting of a pair of supports in which a bicycle or motorcycle wheel revolves. Example sentencesExamples But installing them such makes it possible to drop the bicycle forks down on your vehicle roof if you slip. Vintage steel wheels and forks are hard to find. The best set up for a race fork would be light and stiff. There was a hood ornament made out of forks shaped into a pair of horns (very Texan, I thought). His bike had shock absorbers on the front forks to absorb bumps, her bicycle had none. We see children come into the shop, asking us to blow their tyres up, and we find brakes that don't work, forks badly bent and wheels buckled. I can now answer the question with data and affirm that roof racks do not put excess stress on forks. The ZAP system is an add-on, tire-drive system that mounts the motor to the front or rear bicycle forks. Each wheel was carried in a fork formed by a pair of hydraulic shock absorber struts. Here is my take on the issue of roof racks and the stress they cause on forks and their dropouts. The ladder arms are brought together at the front and angled up to become the headstock for the motorcycle forks, which are kept at a more vertical angle to allow for the extremely sharp turns. The wired mounting hardware works with oversized road bars and a variety of forks, but the wheel magnet only fits standard spokes. It was used to generate 3D models of many of the bike's components, including its forks, handlebars and even the cyclists' helmets. Big knobby tires, suspension fork and disc brakes make this one mean extreme machine, or at least one that looks the part. Can you tell me what the benefit is of having a carbon fork? All Reba forks use air spring technology and offer external or internal adjustment options. The front wheel attaches to the fork, which in turn links via bearings to the head set on the front of the frame. The fork comes with disc brake mounts if a person would ever be interested in upgrading. The head stock was badly worn, which meant the forks carrying the front wheel were tenuously attached to the bikes frame. 4A flash of forked lightning. Example sentencesExamples There was a loud crack of thunder, then a long fork of lightning and sparks emitted from nowhere and struck the figure right in the chest. He let loose with a short hiss of pain just as the crowd gasped and began running home as forks of lightning shot from the clouds above. Lightning forks scratched their summits and distant rainstorms hung like negligees billowing in the clean air. If things weren't hard enough for Dr. Steve and his staff, the weather took a turn for the worse and forks of lightning nearly missed the boat many times. The screaming subsided and the forks of lightning vanished with a descending hiss. A brilliant fork of lightning erupted from the dark grey clouds, a clap of thunder following closely behind. She shivered, seeing blackness spread out like forks of lightning from the sun. The entire sky writhed in agony above him, split by gigantic forks of lightning flashing between the clouds. Just then, a fork of light streaked across the sky and a deafening roar filled her ears. A single fork of lightning slashed the sky, hitting the tree in front of her. A fork of lightning illuminated the imposing shape that hovered in the doorway. The forks that you can see are actually nitrogen and oxygen, which has been converted into plasma. She takes a step towards the edge, a branching fork of lightning flaring across the sky behind her, rain pelting her face but failing to muss her hair. It's a worship dance to the god of thunder and lightning in which the arms and legs mimic the claps of thunder and forks of lightning. A single fork of white lightning slashed the sky, hitting the willow in front of her. A bright fork of lightning struck the clouds ahead, and the outburst of thunder was deafening. Their linings were tainted a blood-red hue - a fork of lightning flashed every now and then. I made it as quick as possible - the rain was still being blown hard against the windows and I could see large forks of lightning through the sheets of rain. Great booms and rumbles of electricity and bright forks of light above the London skyline - and the kind of excitement, tingling and calm that can only accompany a storm. Just as a fork of lightening flashed past her window, two figures appeared in the doorway. 5Chess A simultaneous attack on two or more pieces by one piece. Example sentencesExamples Forks are covered in the chapter ‘The Double Attack,’ although many would consider forks to be a separate species of double attack. A fork occurs when one piece attacks two or more enemy units at the same time. verbfɔrkfôrk 1no object (especially of a road or other route) divide into two parts. the place where the road forks Example sentencesExamples The land was a desert around him, but just beyond the reach of his fingertips, lightning forked from air to ground in continuous strikes. You use anything you can, think on your feet, and talk in a way that's often very ambiguous, although it sounds very specific, and allows you to fork off in different directions. Conversely, the trail intersections homeward-bound ants encounter have branches that fork at a sharp angle and a gentle one. They continued down the path until it forked off into two paths, one going right, and the other going left. The stem is cast as a slender tree branch, one end forking into two tines; the spoon end is applied, shaped as a mussel shell with a gilt interior. Narrow dirt paths forked from the stairs, leading to even denser rows of crosses amongst soft weeds. Frequent bolts of lightning forked through the sky, lighting up her surroundings with an eerie brightness. After a short time, they came across a bend in the dirt street, where two paths forked out. The hallway was very plain, stretching for about twenty or thirty yards forwards before it forked into two separate hallways. The road had forked shortly beyond the rest stop. As the gates started to open, Wilton could see a trail of light leading in through them, up the driveway, and in behind a large sign at the place where the road forked. He scampered into the shaft and continued for some hundred yards until the path abruptly forked once more. However, when he came near a road that forked in three directions, the people Iokaste had described came in a colt-drawn carriage and tried to get him off the road and shoved him. How does such a philosophy of life differ from the theory of multiple realities and infinitely forking paths? The path behind them forked off; a small hillock just a short hundred metres away. Manchester was a meeting and dividing point of Roman roads, forking at the site of the present cathedral and progressing through Radcliffe to Ribchester, while another road crossed Blackstone to Ilkley. Lightning forked down from the sky, and thunder roared in sympathy moments later, adding to the hellish scene. Sometimes the lightening forked across the sky like a crack in the dark firmament. He repeated this three times and pointed to the sky, which began to resound with thunder, huge ominous dark clouds started to gather, lightning forked once or twice. The road forked and turned dangerously several times. Synonyms branch, split, divide, subdivide, separate, part, diverge, go in different directions, go separate ways, bifurcate, split in two 1.1no object, with adverbial of direction Take or constitute one part or the other at the point where a road or other route divides. a minor road forked left Example sentencesExamples She strengthened her grip on my arm, steered me onto a smaller path which forked off the main route to the left. She walked out of the neighborhood, and onto a jaded road that forked off at one point towards the market area. Take the track forking sharply left and follow this boggy walled route gradually uphill along a ridge for a further one and a half miles. Just before the house, take a path that forks to the right and then go right again after 20 yards, following the edge of a field up to a minor road. At the top of the steps take the path forking left and cross a stile leading into a field. The views are for miles south down Wharfedale past Kilnsey Crag and for miles up the valley to where it forks west into Langstrothdale. Take the lane forking right by the pub which crosses a bridge over the beck and passes the Lister Arms. 2with object Dig, lift, or manipulate (something) with a fork. fork in some compost Example sentencesExamples Let the couscous plump up for 15 minutes, then fork it through to separate the grains. The soil was forked over, hoed and then riddled to remove larger stones and other debris. This morning I lifted the last of our parsnips, so that I could fork some well-rotted manure into the raised beds in preparation for this year's sowing. I cast my eyes down and begin desperately forking the salad. He deliberately forked a bite of food from his companion's plate, ate it. They bring the steaks out on a silver platter and fork them onto your plate. Gabe walks outside and heads for the barn where he finds Stuart and Nick hard at work forking new hay for the animals' beds. She swallowed, carefully averting her eyes as she forked a small amount of the spaghetti onto her plate, taking her time as she did so. Efforts were intensified in the summer battle against canal moss, and more men and equipment were brought in to fork it out of the canals and into dump trucks. After a crash course on dining with élan and forking food with flair, the surprise test came on china piled high with tricky-to-eat broccoli, sprouts and small sautéed potatoes. Justin smiled with a slight incline of his head as he forked a bite of the blueberry pie. Then, in the spring, apply a general-purpose fertiliser, such as Growmore, and lightly fork it in. The hay was forked into the hayshed, when the pile got so high; someone had to go up and ‘tramp’ it and throw it to the back of the hayshed. Russ rolled his eyes as he forked some bland food into his mouth. It was forked onto the dray, walked down to pack it, the sides were raked neatly and then it was tied down with ropes and nets. In a typical gesture of sibling acceptance, Hoss leaned over and forked Adam's untouched ham onto his own plate. ‘Here, have some sausages,’ Jack said quietly, forking a number out of the frying pan onto his plate. ‘Here, let me,’ he said, forking a few sausages and putting them on her plate. At least sardines are tiny and slippery and you can usually fork them through the tiny opening. One of the main features of the day was the steam threshing which involved forking the stooks into the steam-powered conveyor belt. 3Chess with object Attack (two pieces) simultaneously with one piece. Example sentencesExamples Black has just pushed his pawn to d5, forking White's Bishop and Knight. When you forked my knight and king, that really was a good move. Phrasal Verbs fork something over/out/up (or fork over/out/up) Pay money for something, especially reluctantly. Example sentencesExamples You have forked the money out every month for years and years and now they don't want to know you, they will not cover you for the things which you need cover for due to age. He also forked over $15,000 for a veterans trip to Las Vegas. One superfan has forked over $10,000 for a one-line speaking role. Mary and the Countess conspire to get Martha to fork up some cash to save Downton Abbey, but grandma refuses. No matter what type of store you walk into, you'll find all types of carefully engineered tricks that get you to fork over cash. Even though 50 dollars seems steep, suck it up and fork it out for this or any of his other works. But hey, it's Comic Relief, I should just fork out the cash and shut up moaning. He had high hopes for his birthday bash and even forked out £10,000 for a private party. In the meantime, he'll have to fork out $400 a night to continue staying at a nearby hotel. Instead of forking over the cash, you can make many kitchen gadgets yourself. Synonyms pay, pay up, pay out Origin Old English forca, force (denoting a farm implement), based on Latin furca ‘pitchfork, forked stick’; reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman French furke (also from Latin furca). noun.1 phr.v.
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