fork
a tool you use for picking up and eating food, with a handle and three or four points
Put the knives and forks on the table.
Oxford Essential Dictionary
fork
noun
1 a thing with long points at one end, that you use for putting food in your mouth
2 a large tool with points at one end, that you use for digging the ground
3 a place where a road or river divides into two parts:
When you get to the fork in the road, go left.
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fork
I. fork1 S3 /fɔːk $ fɔːrk/ BrE AmE noun [countable]
[Language: Old English; Origin: forca, from Latin furca]
1. a tool you use for picking up and eating food, with a handle and three or four points:
Put the knives and forks on the table.
2. a garden tool used for digging, with a handle and three or four points ⇨ pitchfork1
3. a place where a road, river, or tree divides into two parts, or one of the parts it divides into:
the north fork of the Sacramento river
Take the left fork then go straight on.
4. fork of lightning a sudden flash of ↑lightning with two or more lines of light
5. one of the two metal bars between which the front wheel of a bicycle or ↑motorcycle is fixed ⇨ tuning fork
Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
fork
fork [fork forks forked forking] noun, verb [fɔːk] [fɔːrk]
noun
1. a tool with a handle and three or four sharp points (called prongs), used for picking up and eating food
• to eat with a knife and fork
2. a garden tool with a long or short handle and three or four sharp metal points, used for digging
3. a place where a road, river, etc. divides into two parts; either of these two parts
• Shortly before dusk they reached a fork and took the left-hand track.
• Take the right fork.
4. a thing shaped like a fork, with two or more long parts
• a jagged fork of lightning
5. either of two metal supporting pieces into which a wheel on a bicycle or motorcycle is fitted
Word Origin:
Old English forca, force (denoting a farm implement), based on Latin furca ‘pitchfork, forked stick’; reinforced in Middle English by Anglo-Norman French furke (also from Latin furca).
Example Bank:
• Bear left at the fork in the road.
• He put the knives and forks on the table.
• Mash the mixture with a fork.
• She impaled a piece of meat on her fork.
• a fork in the road
• a monkey sitting in the fork of the tree
Derived: fork out ▪ fork out something
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary - 4th Edition
ˈ bread ˌ knife noun [ C ]
a long, sharp knife that has a row of sharp points along one edge, and is used to cut bread
fork / fɔːk / / fɔːrk / noun [ C ] (GARDEN)
a tool with a long handle and three or four points, used for digging and breaking soil into pieces:
a garden fork.
fork / fɔːk / / fɔːrk / noun [ C ] (DIVISION)
a place where a road, river, etc. divides into two parts, or either of those two parts:
When you reach a fork in the road take the right-hand path.
Take the left-hand fork.
© Cambridge University Press 2013
Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary
fork
[fɔ͟ː(r)k]
forks, forking, forked
1) N-COUNT A fork is a tool used for eating food which has a row of three or four long metal points at the end.
...knives and forks.
3) N-COUNT A garden fork is a tool used for breaking up soil which has a row of three or four long metal points at the end.
5) N-COUNT: usu with supp A fork in a road, path, or river is a point at which it divides into two parts and forms a `Y' shape.
We arrived at a fork in the road...
The road divides; you should take the right fork.
...the fork of the Delaware and Lehigh rivers.
Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's Dictionary
1fork /ˈfoɚk/ noun, pl forks [count]
1 a : a small tool with two or more pointed parts (called prongs or tines) used for picking up and eating food
• a salad fork
b : a garden tool with two or more prongs used for lifting and digging soil - see also pitchfork
2 a : a place where something (such as a road or river) divides into two parts
• a fork in the road
b : either one of the parts that a road, river, etc., divides into
• take the left fork
• the north fork of the river
3 : a part or tool that divides into two parts
• the front fork of a bicycle
