Fork
WordNet
noun
(1) The act of branching out or dividing into branches
(2) Cutlery used for serving and eating food
(3) An agricultural tool used for lifting or digging; has a handle and metal prongs
(4) The angle formed by the inner sides of the legs where they join the human trunk
(5) The region of the angle formed by the junction of two branches
"They took the south fork"
"He climbed into the crotch of a tree"
verb
(6) Shape like a fork
"She forked her fingers"
(7) Divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork
"The road forks"
(8) Place under attack with one's own pieces, of two enemy pieces
(9) Lift with a pitchfork
"Pitchfork hay"
WiktionaryText
Etymology
From forca , force , from . Later reinforced under influence of Old Northern French forque ( = Old French forche > French fourche), from the Latin.
Noun
- A pronged tool having a long straight handle, used for digging, lifting, throwing etc.
- 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.
- A point where a waterway, such as a river, splits and goes two (or more) different directions (see image).
- The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
- A splitting-up of an existing process into itself and a child process executing parts of the same program.
- An event where development of some free software or open-source software is split into two or more separate projects.
- Crotch.
Related terms
Verb
- To use a fork to move food to the mouth.
- To spawn a new child process in some sense duplicating the existing process.
- To split a (software) project into several projects.
- To kick someone in the crotch.