Definition of "fork" in Anglais

noun

1. Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:

2. (by abstraction, from the tool shape) A fork in the road, as follows:

3. (by abstraction, from the tool shape) A point where a waterway, such as a river or other stream, splits and flows into two (or more) different directions.

4. (metonymic, analogous to any prong of a pronged tool) 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.

   • a thunderbolt with three forks
   • this fork of the river dries up during droughts

5. (figuratively, decision-making) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.

6. (figuratively, by abstraction, from a physical fork) (software development, content management, data management) A departure from having a single source of truth (SSOT), sometimes intentionally but usually unintentionally.

7. (chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).

8. (British, vulgar) The crotch.

9. (colloquial) A forklift.

   • Are you qualified to drive a fork?

10. Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.

    • Get those forks tilted back more or you're gonna lose that pallet!

11. (cycling, motorcycling, by abstraction from a pronged tool's shape) In a bicycle or motorcycle, the portion of the frameset holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance, also called front fork.

    • The fork can be equipped with a suspension on mountain bikes.

12. The upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.

13. (computing, file systems) A set of data associated with an individual file in some file systems.

    • resource fork

14. (obsolete) A gallows.

verb

1. (ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies.

   • A road, a tree, or a stream forks.

2. (transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).

3. (transitive, British) To kick someone in the crotch.

4. (intransitive) To shoot into blades, as corn does.

5. (chess) To simultaneously attack two opposing pieces with a single attacking piece.

6. (transitive) Euphemistic form of fuck.