Fork n.
1. An instrument consisting of a handle with a shank terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; -- used for piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.
2. Anything furcate or like a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.
3. One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.
Let it fall . . . though the fork invade
The region of my heart. --Shak.
A thunderbolt with three forks. --Addison.
4. The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.
5. The gibbet. [Obs.]
Fork beam Shipbuilding, a half beam to support a deck, where hatchways occur.
Fork chuck Wood Turning, a lathe center having two prongs for driving the work.
Fork head. (a) The barbed head of an arrow. (b) The forked end of a rod which forms part of a knuckle joint.
In fork. Mining A mine is said to be in fork, or an engine to “have the water in fork,” when all the water is drawn out of the mine. --Ure.
The forks of a river or The forks of a road, the branches into which it divides, or which come together to form it; the place where separation or union takes place.