Fork

10 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fork \Fork\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Forked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
     {Forking}.]
     1. To shoot into blades, as corn.
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              The corn beginneth to fork.           --Mortimer.


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     2. To divide into two or more branches; as, a road, a tree,
        or a stream forks.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fork \Fork\ (f[^o]rk), n. [AS. forc, fr. L. furca. Cf.
     {Fourch['e]}, {Furcate}.]
     1. An instrument consisting of a handle with a shank
        terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are
        usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; -- used
        for piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.
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     2. Anything furcate or like a fork in shape, or furcate at
        the extremity; as, a tuning fork.
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     3. 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.
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              Let it fall . . . though the fork invade
              The region of my heart.               --Shak.
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              A thunderbolt with three forks.       --Addison.
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     4. The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or
        opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a
        river, a tree, or a road.
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     5. The gibbet. [Obs.] --Bp. Butler.
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     {Fork beam} (Shipbuilding), a half beam to support a deck,
        where hatchways occur.
  
     {Fork chuck} (Wood Turning), a lathe center having two prongs
        for driving the work.
  
     {Fork head}.
        (a) The barbed head of an arrow.
        (b) The forked end of a rod which forms part of a knuckle
            joint.
  
     {In fork}. (Mining) A mine is said to be in fork, or an
        engine to "have the water in fork," when all the water is
        drawn out of the mine. --Ure.
  
     {The forks of a river} or {The forks of a road}, the branches
        into which it divides, or which come together to form it;
        the place where separation or union takes place.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Fork \Fork\, v. t.
     To raise, or pitch with a fork, as hay; to dig or turn over
     with a fork, as the soil.
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           Forking the sheaves on the high-laden cart. --Prof.
                                                    Wilson.
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     {To fork over} {To fork out}, to hand or pay over, as money;
        to {cough up}. [Slang] --G. Eliot.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Bracket \Brack"et\, n. [Cf. OF. braguette codpiece, F. brayette,
     Sp. bragueta, also a projecting mold in architecture; dim.
     fr. L. bracae breeches; cf. also, OF. bracon beam, prop,
     support; of unknown origin. Cf. {Breeches}.]
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     1. (Arch.) An architectural member, plain or ornamental,
        projecting from a wall or pier, to support weight falling
        outside of the same; also, a decorative feature seeming to
        discharge such an office.
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     Note: This is the more general word. See {Brace},
           {Cantalever}, {Console}, {Corbel}, {Strut}.
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     2. (Engin. & Mech.) A piece or combination of pieces, usually
        triangular in general shape, projecting from, or fastened
        to, a wall, or other surface, to support heavy bodies or
        to strengthen angles.
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     3. (Naut.) A shot, crooked timber, resembling a knee, used as
        a support.
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     4. (Mil.) The cheek or side of an ordnance carriage.
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     5. (Print.) One of two characters [], used to inclose a
        reference, explanation, or note, or a part to be excluded
        from a sentence, to indicate an interpolation, to rectify
        a mistake, or to supply an omission, and for certain other
        purposes; -- called also {crotchet}.
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     6. A gas fixture or lamp holder projecting from the face of a
        wall, column, or the like.
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     7. (Gunnery) A figure determined by firing a projectile
        beyond a target and another short of it, as a basis for
        ascertaining the proper elevation of the piece; -- only
        used in the phrase, to establish a bracket. After the
        bracket is established shots are fired with intermediate
        elevations until the exact range is obtained. In the
        United States navy it is called {fork}.
        [Webster 1913 Suppl.]
  
     {Bracket light}, a gas fixture or a lamp attached to a wall,
        column, etc.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  fork
       n 1: cutlery used for serving and eating food
       2: the act of branching out or dividing into branches [syn: {branching},
           {ramification}, {forking}]
       3: a part of a forked or branching shape; "he broke off one of
          the branches"; "they took the south fork" [syn: {branch},
          {leg}, {ramification}]
       4: an agricultural tool used for lifting or digging; has a
          handle and metal prongs
       5: the angle formed by the inner sides of the legs where they
          join the human trunk [syn: {crotch}]
       v 1: lift with a pitchfork; "pitchfork hay" [syn: {pitchfork}]
       2: place under attack with one's own pieces, of two enemy
          pieces
       3: divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork; "The
          road forks" [syn: {branch}, {ramify}, {furcate}, {separate}]
       4: shape like a fork; "She forked her fingers"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  162 Moby Thesaurus words for "fork":
     L, V, affluent, angle, angle off, apex, bail, bayou, bend,
     bifurcate, bifurcation, bight, billabong, bine, bisect, bough,
     bowl, branch, branch out, branchedness, branchiness, bucket,
     burgeon, by two, cant, cast, catapult, chevron, chuck, chunk,
     cleave, coin, confluent, confluent stream, corner, crank, crook,
     crotch, crotchet, crutch, cup, cut in two, cutlery, dart, dash,
     deadwood, decant, deflection, delta, dendritic drainage pattern,
     dichotomize, dimidiate, dining utensils, dip, dish, dish out,
     dish up, divaricate, divide, dogleg, effluent, elbow, ell, fan,
     feeder, fire, fission, flagellum, flat silver, flatware, fling,
     flip, forks, frond, furcate, furcation, furcula, furculum, groin,
     halve, heave, hollow ware, hook, hurl, hurtle, in half, inflection,
     inguen, jerk, knee, knives, ladle, lance, launch, let fly, limb,
     lob, nook, offshoot, pass, peg, pelt, pitch, pitchfork, point,
     pour, prong, put, put the shot, quoin, ramage, ramification,
     ramify, runner, sarment, scion, scoop, serve, shoot, shovel, shy,
     silver, silver plate, silverware, sling, slip, snap, spade, spear,
     split in two, spoon, spoons, spray, sprig, sprit, sprout,
     stainless-steel ware, stem, stolon, subdivide, sucker, swerve,
     switch, tablespoon, tableware, teaspoon, tendril, thallus, throw,
     tilt, toss, transect, tributary, trident, trifurcate, twig, veer,
     vertex, wishbone, zag, zig, zigzag
  
  

From Jargon File (4.3.1, 29 Jun 2001) [jargon]:

  fork In the open-source community, a fork is what occurs when two (or
     more) versions of a software package's source code are being developed
     in parallel which once shared a common code base, and these multiple
     versions of the source code have irreconcilable differences between
     them. This should not be confused with a development branch, which may
     later be folded back into the original source code base. Nor should it
     be confused with what happens when a new distribution of Linux or some
     other distribution is created, because that largely assembles pieces
     than can and will be used in other distributions without conflict.
  
     Forking is uncommon; in fact, it is so uncommon that individual
     instances loom large in hacker folklore. Notable in this class were the
     http://www.xemacs.org/About/XEmacsVsGNUemacs.html (Emacs/XEmacs fork),
     the GCC/EGCS fork (later healed by a merger) and the forks among the
     FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD operating systems.
  
  

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:

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

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  FORK, n.  An instrument used chiefly for the purpose of putting dead
  animals into the mouth.  Formerly the knife was employed for this
  purpose, and by many worthy persons is still thought to have many
  advantages over the other tool, which, however, they do not altogether
  reject, but use to assist in charging the knife.  The immunity of
  these persons from swift and awful death is one of the most striking
  proofs of God's mercy to those that hate Him.
  
  

From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:

  Fork, MD
    Zip code(s): 21051
  Fork, SC
    Zip code(s): 29543