[f. as prec.] Obs. exc. dial. A fork-shaped instrument used for stirring up the fire, putting on fuel, etc.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 161/2. Fyyr forke, ticionarium.
1483–4. Act 1 Rich. III., c. 12. Fireforkes.
1547. Lanc. Wills, I. 108. Ij yrnes for the oven mouthe and a fire-fork.
1617. Drayton, Agincourt, 179.
| The women eager as their husbands were | |
| With Spits, and Fireforkes, sware if they could catch him, | |
| It should goe hard, but they would soone dispatch him. |
1727. De Foe, Hist. Appar., ix. (1735), 169. A fourth came out, not with a Sword, but a Fire-Fork taken hastily up out of the tavern kitchen.
1875. in Parish, Sussex Gloss.
1887. in Kent Gloss.
fig. 1685. Crowne, Sir C. Nice, III. Wks. 1874, III. 301. Bell.… Who brought this picture? Hot. The common fire-fork of rebellion.
