ppl. a. [f. FORK sb. + -ED2.]
1. Having a fork or fork-like end; shaped like a fork, bifurcate, branching.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 18843 (Cott.).
| Forked fair þe chin he bare | |
| And tender berd wit mikel hare. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 270. A Marchant was ther with a forked berd.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xxii. 428. The swalowes … tayles ben forkyd as a payr of sherys.
c. 1400. Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 158. Þat oþere partie of þe veyne passiþ to þe arm-hoolis, & þere he is forkid.
1534. Fitzherb., Husb., § 21. He hath a forked stycke a yarde longe, and with his forked stycke he putteth the wede from hym.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 334. When hee was naked, hee was, for all the world, like a forked Radish, with a Head fantastically caru’d vpon it with a Knife.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 517.
| He would have spoke, | |
| But hiss for hiss returnd with forked tongue | |
| To forked tongue, for now were all transform’d | |
| Alike, to Serpents all as accessories | |
| To his bold Riot. |
1692. Lond. Gaz., No. 2830/4. Stolen … 2 silver Spoons, a Fork, 2 small Spoons forkt.
1729. T. Cooke, Tales, etc., 40. Forked Light’nings fright the World below.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, I. 53. ci.
| On two forked sticks with cordage tied, | |
| Their pot o’er pilfer’d fuel boils away. |
1861. Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 3. A stem is termed forked when it divides into two branches of equal, or nearly equal, size, as in the Annual Knawel.
1870. Hooker, Stud. Flora, 24. Arabis…. Annual or perennial herbs, glabrous, or with forked or stellate hairs.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, II. 209.
| Ere long on the Trojan plains they emerge, | |
| Burning eyes suffused with fire and with blood; and between | |
| Jaws that for ever hiss, forked tongues are flickering seen. |
fig. 1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. IV., xvii.
| Thus forkéd Novelty Spreads, to bring in, | |
| Wth Eyther hand; vsurpéd Government | |
| Stand by noe single meanes. |
b. Of a road: Making a fork; having two or more diverging branches.
1525. Ld. Berners, Froiss., II. xci. [lxxxvii.], 271. When we had rydden a ii. leages, we came to a forked waye.
1600. Holland, Livy, XXXVIII. xlv. (1609), 1011. At every forked high way leading on both hands.
1633. Gate of Tongues Unl., 114. A forked way or carfax is deceitfull and uncertaine, therefore that thou maist not erre, aske those thou meetest withall, whether thou must turne on the right or on the left.
1888. J. Payn, Myst. Mirbridge, iii. When they came to the forked road where the old sign-post indicates ‘Mirbridge, four miles,’ and the long ascent of the Bridge Hill begins, his excitement increased.
c. Of a mountain: Divided at the summit, cleft.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. xiv. 5.
| Ant. Sometime we see a clowd that’s Dragonish, | |
| A vapour sometime, like a Beare, or Lyon, | |
| A toward Cittadell, a pendant Rocke, | |
| A forked Mountaine, or blew Promontorie | |
| With Trees vpon’t, that nodde vnto the world, | |
| And mocke our eyes with Ayre. |
a. 1628. Sir J. Beaumont, To Muses, 2, in Bosworth F. (1629), 9.
| Ye Heav’nly Sisters, by whose sacred Skill, | |
| Sweet Sounds are rais’d upon the forked Hill | |
| Of high Parnassus. |
1821. Shelley, Prometh. Unb., I. i.
| Fear not: ’tis but some passing spasm, | |
| The Titan is unvanquished still. | |
| But see, where thro’ the azure chasm | |
| Of yon forked and snowy hill. |
† d. of a mitre.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), II. 279.
| No wyse man is desyrous to obtayne | |
| The forked cap without he worthy be. |
1545. Brinkelow, Compl., 4. I be a man banysshed my natyue contry, only by the cruelty of the forkyd cappes of Ingland for speaking Gods truth.
1641. Milton, Ch. Govt., I. vi. (1851), 128. She hating to do, sends her haughty Prelates from all parts with their forked Miters.
e. Her. = FORCHÉ. (Robson, Brit. Her., 1830).
1486. Bk. St. Albans, Her., c vj a. A certan forkyd cros … hit is called forkyd: for as moch as that all thendys of hit ar clouyn and forkyd.
f. Having (a specified number of) forks or prongs, as three-forked.
1535. Coverdale, 1 Sam. ii. 13. A thre forked fleshoke in his hande.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 59. With toonge three forcked furth spirts fyre freshlye regendred.
a. 1628. F. Greville, Monarchy, dclii.
| Yet us’d to stirre, or calm the ocean’s race, | |
| As royalties of his [Neptune’s] three-forkèd mace. |
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, II. 475. Some viper … darting a three-forked flickering tongue.
† g. Of an arrow: Barbed. Obs.
1540. Stourton, Lett., in Wilts. Arch. Mag. (1864), VIII. 296. Hartgill made great spede towards hym on horsback with his crose bow bent and forked arrow in the same.
1611. Cotgr., Fer de fleiche à oreilles, a forked or barbed arrowe head.
1673. Dryden, Assignation, III. i. I am wounded with a forked Arrow, which will not easily be got out.
2. Having the lower half of the body divided; two-legged.
1605. Shaks., Lear, III. iv. 113. Thou art the thing it selfe; vnaccommodated man, is no more but such a poore, bare, forked Animall as thou art.
1771. Exmoor Scold., 48. Thee wut come oll a gerred, and oil horry zo vurs tha art a vorked [= i-forked].
3. Of building: Characterized by the use of ‘forks’ (see FORK sb. 7).
1792. J. Mastin, Hist. Antiq. Naseby, 9. The oldest houses in Naseby are, as to the wood part, mostly oak, and some of them of the most antique architecture, called forked building, which forks are all of oak, very rough, strong, uncouth, and put together in a rude manner.
4. Horned; also spec. of deer: see quot. 1674
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iv. 476.
| And the more she [the Moon] Fills her forked Round, | |
| The more the Marrow doth in bones abound. | |
| Ibid. (1598), II. i. III. Furies, 600. | |
| With fisking train, with forked head, and foot, | |
| Himselfe, th’ Ayre, th’ Earth, he beateth (to no boot). |
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat. (1677), I. 13. Heads having doubling Croches, are called Forked Heads, because the Croches are planted on the top of the Beam like Forks.
b. ‘Horned,’ ‘cornuted,’ cuckolded. A knight of the forked order: a cuckold.
1586. T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., I. 455. If thou mariest a faire woman, thou puttest thy selfe in great danger, least thy rounde heade become forked, which would be a fearefull metamorphosis and alteration, if it were visible and apparant.
1592. Greene, Disput., Wks. (Grosart), X. 257. The Gentlewoman waxing pitifull, as women are kinde harted and are loth Gentlemen should die for loue, after a few excuses, let him dub her husband knight of the forked order, and so to satisfie his humor, made forfeyt of her owne honor.
1639. Mayne, City Match, in Dodsley, O. Pl. (1780), IX. 373. And I am fork’d? hum!
1673. F. Kirkman, Unlucky Citizen, 95. I should be sure to be dubb’d a knight of the forked order.
† 5. Of an argument, etc.: That points more than one way; containing a dilemma; ambiguous, equivocal. Obs.
1551. Bp. Gardiner, Explication, 80 b. What hath this auctor wonne nowe by his forked question?
1604–13. R. Cawdry, Table Alph. (ed. 3), Dilemma, a forked kinde of argument.
1605. B. Jonson, Volpone, I. i.
| Giue forked counsel; take prouoking gold | |
| On eyther hand, and put it vp. |
1663. J. Spencer, Prodigies (1665), 324. To this forked Objection, I return these five considerations.
1681. Crowne, Hen. VI., IV. 46. Must Justice starve because we want a Lawyer’s forked distinctions to feed her neatly with?
† b. Of a fee: Taken from both parties in a suit.
1648. Herrick, Hesper. (1869), 216.
| Sooner the inside of thy hand shall grow | |
| Hisped and hairy, ere thy palm shall know | |
| A postern-bribe took, or a forked fee, | |
| To fetter Justice, when she might be free. |
6. Done with a fork. nonce-use.
1611. Coryat, Crudities, 91. I my selfe thought good to imitate the Italian fashion by this forked cutting of meate.
7. ellipt. for forked-headed or -tailed.
1674. N. Cox, Gentl. Recreat., II. (1677), 161. The Forked Kite and bold Buzzard.
1769. Pennant, Zool. (1776), III. 170. It [Forked Hake] is known on the coast of Cornwall by the name of the great forked beard, where it was first discovered by Mr. Jago.
1864. J. Couch, Fishes Brit. Isl., III. 125. Hake’s Dame, Forked Hake, Goat fish.
8. Comb.: parasynthetic and similative, as forked-wise adv.; also † forked-beard = fork-beard; forked-head, a forked or barbed arrow, a fork-head; forked-tailed a., having a forked tail; esp. in the names of birds (cf. fork-tailed).
1713. Ray, Syn. Pisc., 163. The great *FORKED-BEARD. Ibid., 164. The lesser FORKED-BEARD.
1574. J. Fortescue, in Hist. Fam. of F. (1869), II. 228. Arrows … as well *forked-heads as others.
1600. Shaks., As You Like It, II. i. 24.
| And yet it irkes me the poore dapled fooles | |
| Being natiue Burgers of this desert City, | |
| Should intheir owne confines with forked heads | |
| Haue their round hanches goard. |
1556. J. Heywood, Spider & F., xxxi. 95.
| There wyll cum foorth a sorte of *forkte tailde flise | |
| That will not sticke to tell, a hundred thowsande lise. |
1691. Ray, Creation (1701), 167. It is manifest to Sight, that the fork’d-tail’d Kite, by turning her Train sideways, elevating one Horn, and depressing the other, turns her whole Body.
1843. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, III. 520. The Forked-tailed Petrel.
1586. Lupton, Thous. Notable Th. (1795), 13. Many women with child, on the sudden or unlooked for meeting, or sudden seeing of an hare, or for desire or longing to eat of the same, do bring forth children with a cloven upper lip, and *forkedwise called an hare lip.
Hence Forkedly adv., in a forked manner; Forkedness, the condition of being forked.
1603. Dekker, Wonderf. Yeare, E iv. The wiues of those husbands, with whom she had playd at fast and loose, came with nayles sharpened for the nonce, like cattes, and tongues forkedly cut like the stings of adders, fist to scratch out false Cressidaes eyes, and then (which was worse) to worry her to dath with scolding.
1611. Cotgr., Fourcheure … forkednesse.
a. 1665. Goodwin, Wks. (1692), III. 601. Besides the strength of the arm that shoots them, and the forkedness of the arrows themselves, they were all as arrows that are dipped in poison, envenomed with the guilt of his sins.
1748. Richardson, Clarissa (1811), VI. 50. Sally, on this occasion, with an affected and malicious laugh, snapt her fingers at me, and pointing two of each hand forkedly at me, bid me remember the lines I once showed her of my favourite Jack Dryden, as she always familiarly calls that celebrated poet:
| We women to new joys unseen may move: | |
| There are no prints left in the paths of love. | |
| All goods besides by public marks are known: | |
| But those men most desire to keep, have none. |
1789. G. White, Selborne, xviii. (1843), 230. Both male and female [swallow] are distinguished from their congeners by the length and forkedness of their tails.
1881. Duffield, Don Quix., II. 555. The lady … stepped a few paces back, took a short run, and, placing both hands on the haunches of the ass, flung her body with a falcon’s flight across the saddle, and remained forkedly, as if she had been a man.
