fork
IPA: fˈɔrk
noun
- Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:
- A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting.
- Any of several types of pronged tools for use on farms, in fields, or in the garden or lawn, such as a smaller hand fork for weeding or a larger one for turning over the soil.
- Such a pronged tool having a long straight handle, generally for two-handed use, as used for digging, lifting, mucking, pitching, etc.
- A tuning fork.
- (by abstraction, from the tool shape) A fork in the road, as follows:
- (physical) An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two.
- (figurative) A decision point.
- (by abstraction, from the tool shape) A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.
- (metonymically, and analogous to any prong of a pronged tool) 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.
- (figuratively, decision-making) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.
- (metonymically) Either of the (figurative) paths thus taken.
- (figuratively, by abstraction, from a physical fork) (software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally.
- (metonymically) Any of the pieces/versions (of software, content, or data sets) thus created.
- (software) The launch of one or more separate software development efforts based upon a modified copy of an existing project, especially in free and open-source software.
- (software) Any of the software projects resulting from the launch of such separate software development efforts based upon a copy of the original project.
- (content management) The splitting of the coverage of a topic (within a corpus of content) into two or more pieces.
- (content management) Any of the pieces/versions of content thus created.
- (cryptocurrencies) A split in a blockchain resulting from protocol disagreements, or a branch of the blockchain resulting from such a split.
- (chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
- (Britain, vulgar) The crotch.
- (colloquial) A forklift.
- Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
- (cycling, motorcycling, by abstraction from a pronged tool's shape) In a bicycle or motorcycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance, also called front fork.
- The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
- (obsolete) A gallows.
- (mining) The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.
verb
- (transitive, intransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies.
- (transitive, intransitive, computing) To spawn a new child process by duplicating the existing process.
- (transitive, intransitive, software engineering) To launch a separate software development effort based upon a modified copy of an existing software project, especially in free and open-source software.
- (transitive, software engineering) To create a copy of a distributed version control repository.
- (transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).
- (transitive, Britain) To kick someone in the crotch.
- (intransitive) To shoot into blades, as corn does.
- (mining, transitive) To bale a shaft dry.
Advertisement
Examples of "fork" in Sentences
- That leaves the question of the fork.
- Oil in the fork is purely for lubrication.
- The fork of the tongue is a directional aide.
- Chopsticks also predate the invention of the fork.
- In 1951 the option of telescopic forks was introduced.
- It was just fatuous to argue that that article was a fork.
- The knife is held in the right hand and the fork in the left.
- Anther with forked end, the upper fork being shorter than the lower.
- While the western world use a knife and fork, the Chinese use chopsticks.
- The major items of cutlery in the Western world are the knife, fork and spoon.