noun
Any of several types of pronged (tined) tools (physical tools), as follows:
(by abstraction, from the tool shape) A fork in the road, as follows:
(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.
(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.
(figuratively, decision-making) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths.
(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.
(chess) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight).
(British, vulgar) The crotch.
(colloquial) A forklift.
Either of the blades of a forklift (or, in plural, the set of blades), on which the goods to be raised are loaded.
(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 upper front brow of a saddle bow, connected in the tree by the two saddle bars to the cantle on the other end.
(computing, file systems) A set of data associated with an individual file in some file systems.
(obsolete) A gallows.
verb
(ambitransitive) To divide into two or more branches or copies.
(transitive) To move with a fork (as hay or food).
(transitive, British) To kick someone in the crotch.
(intransitive) To shoot into blades, as corn does.
(chess) To simultaneously attack two opposing pieces with a single attacking piece.
(transitive) Euphemistic form of fuck.
noun
(mining) The bottom of a sump into which the water of a mine drains.
verb
(mining, transitive) To bale a shaft dry.