subs. (old).—1. A pickpocket. Fr., ‘Avoir les mains crochues = to be a light-fingered or lime-fingered filcher; every finger of his hand as good as a lime-twig.’—COTGRAVE.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue.
2. (thieves’).—A finger. The FORKS = the fore and middle fingers; also cf. (proverbial), ‘Fingers were made before FORKS.’
ENGLISH SYNONYMS.—Claws; cunt-hooks (GROSE); daddles (also the hands); divers; feelers; fives; flappers; grapplers; grappling irons; gropers; hooks; nail-bearers; pickers and stealers (Shakespeare); corn-stealers; Ten Commandments; ticklers; pinkies; muck-forks.
FRENCH SYNONYMS.—Les apôtres (thieves’: = the ten Apostles); les fourchettes, or les fourchettes d’Adam (popular: = Adam’s forks); le peigne d’allemand (thieves’: RABELAIS).
GERMAN SYNONYMS.—Ezba (= the finger, especially the first or fore-finger. The names of the others are: Godel = the thumb; Ammo = the middle-finger; Kemizo = the ring-finger; Seres, i.e., ‘span’ = the little finger); Griffling (= also the hand. From greifen = to seize).
SPANISH SYNONYMS.—Mandamiento (= a commandment: cf., TEN COMMANDMENTS); tiferas (= the fore- and middle fingers; MINSHEU (1599) Dictionarie, tijeras = ‘small sheares, seizers, snuffers’).
PORTUGUESE SYNONYM.—Medunhos.
1821. D. HAGGART, Life, p. 121. My FORKS were equally long, and they never failed me.
1834. W. H. AINSWORTH, Rookwood. ‘Nix my Dolly.’ No dummy hunter had FORKS so fly. Ibid. (1889), Jack Sheppard, p. 20. I’ll give him the edication of a prig—teach him the use of his FORKS betimes.
1841. Tait’s Edinburgh Magazine, VIII., p. 220. My FORKS were light and fly, and lightly faked away.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette, 9 Feb. Up they came briskly with smiling mugs, shook hands, then stepped back a pace or two, put up their FORKS, and the spectators were hushed into silence, for they saw that the battle was about to begin.
3. In plural (common).—The hands.
4. (old).—A gibbet; in the plural = the gallows. [FORK is often applied to anything resembling a divarication (as of a tree, river, or road), etc.: cf., sense 2. Cf., Cicero (de Div., i., 26). Ferens furcam ductus est: a slave so punished was called furcifer.]
5. (old).—A spendthrift.
1725. A New Canting Dictionary, s.v.
6. (tailors’ and venery).—The CRUTCH (q.v.), NOCKANDRO (q.v.), or TWIST (q.v.). [Thus, A BIT ON A FORK = the female pudendum; a GRIND (q.v.).] Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs depart.’—COTGRAVE.
Verb (old).—1. To steal; specifically to pick a pocket by inserting the middle and forefinger. Also TO PUT ONE’S FORKS DOWN: Fr., vol à la fourchette.
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew. LET’S FORK HIM, c. Let us pick that man’s pocket, the newest and most dextrous way; it is to thrust the fingers straight, stiff, open, and very quick into the pocket, and so closing them hook what can be held between them.
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue. Let us FORK him.
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. Yet so keen was his appetite for the sport, that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into tears at not having ‘FORKED more.’
1878. CHARLES HINDLEY, The Life and Times of James Catnach. ‘The Song of The Young Prig,’ Chorus.
| Frisk the cly, and FORK the rag, | |
| Draw the fogles plummy, | |
| Speak to the tattler, bag the swag, | |
| And finely hunt the dummy. |
2. (venery).—To open up, or SPREAD (q.v.).
TO FORK OUT, or OVER (sometimes abbreviated to FORK). Verb. phr. (common).—To hand over; to pay; TO SHELL OUT (q.v.).
1830. BULWER-LYTTON, Paul Clifford, ch. xxxi. The person FORKS him OUT ten shiners.
1836. DICKENS, Sketches by Boz, p. 84. His active mind at once perceived how much might be done in the way of … shoving the old and helpless into the wrong buss, and carrying them off … till they was rig’larly done over, and FORKED OUT the stumpy.
1837. R. H. BARHAM, The Ingoldsby Legends (The Execution).
| He Pulls up at the door of a gin-shop, and gaily | |
| Cries, ‘What must I FORK OUT to-night, my trump, | |
| For the whole first-floor of the Magpie and Stump?’ |
1840. The Comic Almanack. ‘Tom the Devil,’ p. 214. ‘That’s a nate way of doin’ business, sure enough,’ was the commentary; ‘ounly I can’t larn the sinse of going to a private lodging, where, if you ordher a kidney for breakfast, you’re expected to FORK OUT to the butcher.’
1852. H. B. STOWE, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, ch. viii. You’ve got to FORK OVER fifty dollars, flat down, or this child don’t start a peg.
1864. DICKENS, Our Mutual Friend, Bk. III., ch. i. ‘Now,’ said Fledgeby, ‘FORK OUT your balance in hand, and prove by figures how you make it out that it ain’t more.’
1867. Albany Argus, 5 Sept. Now, sir, you will please FORK OVER that money to me, and pay your bill, or I’ll have the law out of you, as sure as you are born.
1887. Lippincott’s Magazine, Aug., p. 199. Just calculate my percentage of our liabilities, and allow me to FORK OVER.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up C. O. D. and he had to FORK OVER for them.
TO FORK ON, verb. phr. (American).—To appropriate. Cf., TO FREEZE ON TO.
TO PITCH THE FORK, verb. phr. (popular).—To tell a pitiful tale.
TO EAT VINEGAR WITH A FORK, verb. phr. (common).—A person either over-shrewd or over-snappish is said to have EATEN VINEGAR WITH A FORK. Fr., Avoir mangé de l’oseille. See NETTLE.
