Dictionary

fork

Pronunciation

(GA) IPA: /fɔɹk/
(RP) IPA: /fɔːk/

Noun

fork (plural forks)

A pronged tool having a long straight handle, used for digging, lifting, throwing etc.
Synonyms: pitchfork
A pronged tool for use in the garden; a smaller hand fork for weeding etc., or larger for turning over the soil.
(obsolete) A gallows.
A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting.
A tuning fork.
An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
- When you come to a fork in the road, take it - Yogi Berra
One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.
- some time after his death in 1719???, Joseph Addison, Dialogues Upon the Usefulness of Ancient Medals
  a thunderbolt with three forks.
A point where a waterway, such as a river, splits and goes two (or more) different directions.
(geography) Used in the names of some river tributaries.
West Fork White River and East Fork White River join together to form the White River of Indiana.
Synonyms: branch
(figuratively) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.
(chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
(computer science) A splitting-up of an existing process into itself and a child process executing parts of the same program.
(software) The splitting of a software development effort into two or more separate projects, especially in free and open-source software.
(software) Any of the software projects resulting from such a split.
LibreOffice is a fork of OpenOffice.
(cryptocurrency, by extension) A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.
(British) The crotch.
(colloquial) A forklift.
Are you qualified to drive a fork?
The set of blades of a forklift, on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
(cycling) In a bicycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance.
The fork can be equipped with a suspension on mountain bikes.

Related terms

denture
trident, a three-pronged spear somewhat resembling a pitchfork

Translations

French: fourche
German: Gabel, Forke
Italian: forcone
Portuguese: forcado
Russian: ви́лы
Spanish: horca, trinche

Translations

French: fourchette
German: Gabel
Italian: forchetta
Portuguese: garfo
Russian: ви́лка
Spanish: tenedor, trinche

Translations

French: bifurcation, fourche
German: Gabelung, Verzweigung
Italian: biforcazione, bivio
Portuguese: bifurcação
Russian: разви́лка
Spanish: bifurcación

Translations

Italian: diramazione, ramificazione, biforcazione

Translations

French: bifurcation, fourche
German: Gabelung, Verzweigung
Italian: biforcazione, bivio, ramo
Portuguese: bifurcação

Translations

Italian: tributario, immissario, affluente

Translations

French: fourchette
German: Gabel
Italian: forchetta
Portuguese: bifurcação, forquilha
Russian: ви́лка

Translations

French: fork, duplication de processus
German: Fork, Verzweigung
Italian: esecuzione di una fork

Translations

French: fork
German: Fork

Translations

German: Abspaltung, Fork
Portuguese: fork, bifurcação, ramificação

Translations

French: fourche
German: Gabel
Italian: forcella
Spanish: horquilla

Verb

fork (forks, present participle forking; past and past participle forked)

(ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches.
A road, a tree, or a stream forks.
(transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).
- forking the sheaves on the high-laden cart
(computer science) To spawn a new child process in some sense duplicating the existing process.
(computer science) To split a (software) project into several projects.
(computer science) To split a (software) distributed version control repository
(British) To kick someone in the crotch.
To shoot into blades, as corn does.
- The corn beginneth to fork.
Euphemistic form of fuck#English|fuck.