[n. of action f. BIFURCATE v.: see -ATION.]

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  1.  Division into two forks or branches (viewed either as an action or a state).

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1646.  Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 93. A byfurcation or division of the roote into two parts.

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1879.  Rutley, Stud. Rocks, ix. 79. A bifurcation of the rays is no longer induced.

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  b.  fig.

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1849.  Grote, Greece, II. xlv. marg. Bifurcation of Grecian politics between Sparta and Athens.

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1876.  Douse, Grimm’s Law, App. E. 206. An incipient bifurcation of meaning.

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  2.  concr. a. The point at which the division into two forks takes place. b. The bifurcating branches or one of them.

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1615.  Crooke, Body of Man, 905. The greater and vtter part of that byfurcation … descendeth along the Brace.

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1761.  Stiles, in Phil. Trans., LV. 263. The tube … lessens gradually as far as the bifurcation.

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1855.  Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, ii. § 128. To regard them as bifurcations of the Gulf Stream.

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1860.  Motley, Netherl. (1868), II. ix. 23. The island … at the bifurcation of the Rhine and the Waal.

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