Fork v.

[f. prec.]

  1.  intr. To form a fork; to divide into branches, divaricate. Of lightning: To play forkedly. Also with away, off, or out.

1598.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. I. Noah, 243.

1796.  H. Hunter, trans. St. Pierre’s Studies of Nature (1799), I. 239. Others [trees] ascend vertically, and having arrived at a certain height, in an air perfectly unobstructed, fork off in various tiers, and send out their branches horizontally.

1808.  J. Barlow, The Columbiad, V. 275.

1840.  Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc., I. IV. 419. The parsnip in such situations forms a large shoulder, and forks away into fingers, when near the hard subsoil.

1847.  Ansted, Anc. World, viii. 170. In one specimen of the paddle … obtained from Barrow-upon-Soar, in Leicestershire, not only the bones, but the actual outlines of the extremity of the fin, are clearly defined, and are found to exhibit the impression of a number of rays extending downwards and forking off towards the end.

1851.  Mayne Reid, Scalp Hunt., II. xviii. 288–9. The lightning forked and flashed, glancing in the water at our feet.

1853.  J. Phillips, Rivers Yorksh., ix. 240. Here the road forked, so as to conduct by Pierse Bridge (camp) to the eastern.

  b.  Of corn: To sprout.

1707.  Mortimer, Husb., 265. Throw the frozen outsides into the middle till the Corn begin to fork and warm in the Couch.

1725.  Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Malt.

  † 2.  fig. a. Of witnesses: To disagree in their testimony. b. Of the tongue [after F. fourcher]: To stumble, trip. Obs.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 16073 (Cott.).

1652.  Urquhart, Jewel, Wks. (1834), 265. The ministerian philoplutaries, my tongue forks it, I have mistaken it seems one word for another, I should have said Philosophers, thought fit otherwayes to dispose thereof.

  3.  trans. To make or put into the form of a fork; to make fork-shaped. † To fork the fingers: to extend them towards a person as a mark of contempt.

1640.  Witts Recreat., C ij.

1668.  Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., I. viii. 315. The Ramus Iliacus is forked out on each side into the external greater, and the internal lesser.

1774.  Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), VII. 348. The shape is roundish, and the body diminishes in circumference to the tail, which is forked into two horns.

1816.  J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, I. 376. A lever … which is forked at the lower part to receive the pendulum.

1816.  Byron, Ch. Har., III. xcv.

1817.  Coleridge, Biog. Lit., II. xxiii. 284. And so exit Clotilda and enter Bertram, who ‘stands without looking at her,’ that is, with his lower limbs forked, his arms akimbo, his side to the lady’s front, the whole figure resembling an inverted Y.

  fig.  1683.  Dryden & Lee, Duke of Guise, IV. iii.

  4.  To raise or move with or as with a fork; to dig, take, or throw in, out, up, etc., with a fork.

1802.  A. Kirkwood, Jrnl., in Mem. (1856), 24. I … forked some hay for Mr. Black.

1829.  Rep. Doncaster Commission, Bone Manure, 30. The general mode of managing fold manure is erroneous, both as to the expense incurred and loss from evaporation. To prevent both, upon carrying it out to the field, it should be forked up to a considerable height, and the whole covered with the soil nearest to the heap.

1833.  M. Scott, Tom Cringle, xv. He [Bang] was gobbling his last plantain, and forking up along with it most respectable slices of cheese.

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric., II. 191. The ancient practice of forking out each parsnip from the ground.

1850.  Kingsley, Alt. Locke, xi. He … set to work forking up some weeds on a fallow, leaving me many new thoughts to digest.

1851.  Glenny, Handbk. Fl. Gard., 24. The border should be prepared for the plants by forking in some peat along all the length of the edging. Ibid. (1858), Gard. Every-day Bk., 75/1. Asparagus.—The beds should now be forked over very carefully, so that the earth may be loosened, but the crowns not damaged.

1883.  Tennyson, Promise of May, II.

  fig.  1647.  Trapp, Mellif. Theolog., in Comm. Epist., 643. He leaves it to a Prodigal, that Rides to Hell with Golden Spurs; and Forks it abroad, as fast as the Miser, his Father raked it together. [Cf. FORK sb. 1 fig.]

1828.  Landor, Imag. Conv., III. 101. Society is not yet trodden down and forked together by you into one and the same rotten mass, with rank weeds covering the top and sucking out its juices.

  absol.  1683.  J. Erskine Jrnl., 11 Sept. (1893), 16. I was seeing the corn cut in the barnyard, and whiles forking.

  5.  transf. (colloq. or slang.) a. To fork out or over: to give up, hand over, pay.

1831.  Trelawny, Adv. Younger Son., I. xxxvi. 289. Come, old boy, fork out something better than this; or I shall be obliged to make a devil of Van Scolp, and grill him.

1855.  Harper’s Mag., XI. Aug., 428/1. Before Jones could get the thing straight in his mind, he forked over the money.

1865.  Dickens, Mut. Fr., III. i. ‘Now,’ said Fledgeby, ‘fork out your balance in hand, and prove by figures how you make it out that it ain’t more.’

  absol.  1856.  Reade, Never too Late, lv. See it for twenty-four hours or I won’t fork out.

1875.  A. R. Hope, My Schoolboy Friends, 154. Some of the fellows were at Matthews’ yesterday, and they heard her calling you no end of names, and swearing that she was going to tell Vialls about you if you didn’t fork out.

  b.  (U.S.) See quots.

1839.  Marryat, Diary Amer., Ser. I. II. 230–1. I heard a young man, a farmer in Vermont, say, when talking about another having gained the heart of a pretty girl, ‘Well, how he contrived to fork into her young affections, I can’t tell.’

1851.  B. H. Hall, College Words, Fork on. At Hamilton College, to fork on, to appropriate to one’s self.

  6.  intr. (colloq.) To protrude awkwardly.

1882.  W. C. Russell, The ‘Lady Maud,’ in Fraser’s Mag., XXV. May, 532. They were as thick as flies, and I noted a number of heads forking over the side of the ship, trying to catch a sight of us, while some men got into the main and fore rigging to look. Ibid. (1890), Ocean Trag., II. xiv. 20 He came slowly forking up through the hatch in his long-limbed way, and approached us with excitement in his manner. Ibid., xix. 133. There were seamen lying in their beds, a vision of leathery noses forking up out of a hedge of whisker, with bright wide-awake eyes that made one think of glow-worms in a bird’s nest.

  7.  slang. (trans.) To fork a person: to pick his pocket. Cf. FORK sb. 3.

a. 1700.  B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Let’s fork him, let us Pick that Man’s Pocket.

1785.  in Grose, Dict. Vulg. Tongue.

  8.  intr. (Sc.) To look out, strive for (something).

1681.  Colvil, Whigs Supplic. (1710), 73.

1825–80.  Jamieson, s.v. Forking, ‘Forkin’ for siller’; ‘Forkin’ for a job.

  9.  Mining. (trans.) To pump (a mine) dry; to remove (water) by pumping. Cf. FORK sb. 11.

1702.  T. Savery, Miner’s Friend, 56. Miner. What signifies your Engine, then, sir, if it be not capable of Sinking or Forking an Old Mine?

1859.  Times, 27 April. He had forked the heaviest waters in the whole country.

1869.  West. Daily Mercury, 20 March. They have resolved on forking the water.

1893.  Pall Mall G., 14 Jan., 2/1. The mine has been ‘forked.’