What is "fork"

Bracket \Brack"et\, n. [Cf. OF. braguette codpiece, F. brayette, Sp. bragueta, also a projecting mold in architecture; dim. fr. L. bracae breeches; cf. also, OF. bracon beam, prop, support; of unknown origin. Cf. Breeches.]

1. (Arch.) An architectural member, plain or ornamental, projecting from a wall or pier, to support weight falling outside of the same; also, a decorative feature seeming to discharge such an office.

   Note: This is the more general word. See Brace, Cantalever, Console, Corbel, Strut.

2. (Engin. & Mech.) A piece or combination of pieces, usually triangular in general shape, projecting from, or fastened to, a wall, or other surface, to support heavy bodies or to strengthen angles.

3. (Naut.) A shot, crooked timber, resembling a knee, used as a support.

4. (Mil.) The cheek or side of an ordnance carriage.

5. (Print.) One of two characters [], used to inclose a reference, explanation, or note, or a part to be excluded from a sentence, to indicate an interpolation, to rectify a mistake, or to supply an omission, and for certain other purposes; -- called also crotchet.

6. A gas fixture or lamp holder projecting from the face of a wall, column, or the like.

7. (Gunnery) A figure determined by firing a projectile beyond a target and another short of it, as a basis for ascertaining the proper elevation of the piece; -- only used in the phrase, to establish a bracket. After the bracket is established shots are fired with intermediate elevations until the exact range is obtained. In the United States navy it is called fork.

   Bracket light, a gas fixture or a lamp attached to a wall, column, etc.

early 14c., "to divide in branches, go separate ways," also "disagree, be inconsistent," from fork (n.). Transitive meaning "raise or pitch with a fork" is from 1812. Related: Forked; forking. The slang verb phrase fork (something) over is from 1839 (fork out) "give over" is from 1831). Forking (n.) in the forensic sense "disagreement among witnesses" is from c.1400.

Old English forca, force "pitchfork, forked instrument, forked weapon," from a Germanic borrowing (Old Frisian forke, Dutch vork, Old Norse forkr, Danish fork) of Latin furca "pitchfork; fork used in cooking," a word of uncertain origin. Old English also had forcel "pitchfork." From c.1200 as "forked stake or post" (as a gallows or prop).\n

\nTable forks are said to have been not used among the nobility in England until 15c. and not common until early 17c. The word is first attested in this sense in English in an inventory from 1430, probably from Old North French forque (Old French furche, Modern French fourche), from the Latin word. Of rivers, from 1753; of roads, from 1839. As a bicycle part from 187

1. As a chess attack on two pieces simultaneously by one (usually a knight), it dates from 1650s. In old slang, forks "the two forefingers" is from 181

n. 1 A pronged tool having a long straight handle, used for digging, lifting, throwing etc. 2 (context obsolete English) A gallows. 3 A utensil with spikes used to put solid food into the mouth, or to hold food down while cutting. 4 A tuning fork. 5 An intersection in a road or path where one road is split into two. 6 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. 7 A point where a waterway, such as a river, splits and goes two (or more) different directions. 8 (context geography English) Used in the names of some river tributary, e.g. West Fork White River and East Fork White River, joining together to form the White River of Indiana 9 (context figuratively English) A point in time where one has to make a decision between two life paths. 10 (context chess English) The simultaneous attack of two adversary pieces with one single attacking piece (especially a knight). 11 (context computer science English) A splitting-up of an existing process into itself and a child process execute parts of the same program. 12 (context computer science English) An event where development of some free software or open-source software is split into two or more separate projects. 13 (context British English) crotch. 14 (context colloquial English) A forklift. 15 The individual blades of a forklift. 16 In a bicycle, the portion holding the front wheel, allowing the rider to steer and balance. vb. 1 To divide into two or more branches. 2 (context transitive English) To move with a fork (as hay or food). 3 (context computer science English) To spawn a new child process in some sense duplicate the existing process. 4 (context computer science English) To split a (software) project into several projects. 5 (context computer science English) To split a (software) distributed version control repository 6 (context British English) To kick someone in the crotch. 7 To shoot into blades, as corn does.

1. v. lift with a pitchfork; "pitchfork hay" [syn: pitchfork]

2. place under attack with one's own pieces, of two enemy pieces

3. divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork; "The road forks" [syn: branch, ramify, furcate, separate]

4. shape like a fork; "She forked her fingers"

1. n. cutlery used for serving and eating food

2. the act of branching out or dividing into branches [syn: branching, ramification, forking]

3. a part of a forked or branching shape; "he broke off one of the branches"; "they took the south fork" [syn: branch, leg, ramification]

4. an agricultural tool used for lifting or digging; has a handle and metal prongs

5. the angle formed by the inner sides of the legs where they join the human trunk [syn: crotch]

In computing, particularly in the context of the Unix operating system and its workalikes, fork is an operation whereby a process creates a copy of itself. It is usually a system call, implemented in the kernel. Fork is the primary (and historically, only) method of process creation on Unix-like operating systems.

A fork is a utensil for eating and cooking.

Fork may also refer to:

1. redirect Intersection (road)#Fork

In chess, a fork is a tactic whereby a single piece makes two or more direct attacks simultaneously. Most commonly two pieces are threatened, which is also sometimes called a double attack. The attacker usually aims to gain material by capturing one of the opponent's pieces. The defender often finds it difficult to counter two or more threats in a single move. The attacking piece is called the forking piece; the pieces attacked are said to be forked. A piece that is defended can still said to be forked if the forking piece has a lower value.

Besides attacking pieces, a target of a fork can be a direct mating threat (for example, attacking an unprotected knight while simultaneously setting up a battery of queen and bishop to threaten mate). Or a target can be an implied threat (for example, a knight may attack an unprotected piece while simultaneously threaten to fork queen and rook).

Forks are often used as part of a combination which may involve other types of chess tactics as well.

As a piece of cutlery or kitchenware, a fork is a tool consisting of a handle with several narrow tines on one end. The fork is a primarily Western utensil, whereas in east Asia chopsticks have been more prevalent. Today, forks are increasingly available throughout east Asia. The usually metal utensil is used to lift food to the mouth or to hold ingredients in place while they are being cut by a knife. Food can be lifted either by spearing it on the tines or by holding it on top of the tines, which are often curved slightly. A fork is shaped in the form of a trident but curved at the joint of the handle to the points.

The early history of the fork is obscure. As a kitchen and dining utensil it is generally believed to have originated in the Roman Empire, as proved by archaeological evidences. The personal table fork most likely originated in the Eastern Roman (or Byzantine) Empire. Its use spread to what is now the Middle East during the first millennium AD and then spread into southern Europe during the second millennium. It did not become common in northern Europe until the 18th century and was not common in North America until the 19th century.

In software engineering, a project fork happens when developers take a copy of source code from one software package and start independent development on it, creating a distinct and separate piece of software. The term often implies not merely a development branch, but a split in the developer community, a form of schism.

Free and open-source software is that which, by definition, may be forked from the original development team without prior permission without violating copyright law. However, licensed forks of proprietary software (e.g. Unix) also happen.

In a computer file system, a fork is a set of data associated with a file system object. File systems without forks only allow a single such set of data for the contents, while file systems with forks allow multiple such contents. Every non-empty file must have at least one fork, often of default type, and depending on the file system, a file may have one or more other associated forks, which in turn may contain primary data integral to the file, or just metadata. Unlike extended attributes, a similar file system feature which is typically of fixed size, forks can be of variable size, possibly even larger than the file's primary data fork. The size of a file is the sum of the sizes of each fork. Forks are also known as streams, since they are of variable size (unlike fixed size metadata), but this differs from .