| 1. | an instrument having two or more prongs or tines, for holding, lifting, etc., as an implement for handling food or any of various agricultural tools. |
| 2. | something resembling or suggesting this in form. |
| 3. | tuning fork. |
| 4. | Machinery. yoke 1 (def. 9). |
| 5. | a division into branches. |
| 6. | the point or part at which a thing, as a river or a road, divides into branches: Bear left at the fork in the road. |
| 7. | either of the branches into which a thing divides. |
| 8. | Horology. (in a lever escapement) the forked end of the lever engaging with the ruby pin. |
| 9. | a principal tributary of a river. |
| 10. | the support of the front wheel axles of a bicycle or motorcycle, having the shape of a two-pronged fork. |
| 11. | the barbed head of an arrow. |
| 12. | to pierce, raise, pitch, dig, etc., with a fork. |
| 13. | to make into the form of a fork. |
| 14. | Chess. to maneuver so as to place (two opponent's pieces) under simultaneous attack by the same piece. |
| 15. | to divide into branches: Turn left where the road forks. |
| 16. | to turn as indicated at a fork in a road, path, etc.: Fork left and continue to the top of the hill. |
| 17. | fork over or out or up, Informal. to hand over; deliver; pay: Fork over the money you owe me! |

noun, plural yokes for 1, 3–20, yoke for 2; verb, yoked, yok⋅ing.| 1. | a device for joining together a pair of draft animals, esp. oxen, usually consisting of a crosspiece with two bow-shaped pieces, each enclosing the head of an animal. Compare harness (def. 1). |
| 2. | a pair of draft animals fastened together by a yoke: five yoke of oxen. |
| 3. | something resembling a yoke or a bow of a yoke in form or use. |
| 4. | a frame fitting the neck and shoulders of a person, for carrying a pair of buckets or the like, one at each end. |
| 5. | an agency of oppression, subjection, servitude, etc. |
| 6. | an emblem or symbol of subjection, servitude, slavery, etc., as an archway under which prisoners of war were compelled to pass by the ancient Romans and others. |
| 7. | something that couples or binds together; a bond or tie. |
| 8. | Machinery. a viselike piece gripping two parts firmly together. |
| 9. | Also called fork. a forklike termination for a rod or shaft, inside which another part is secured. |
| 10. | a fitting for the neck of a draft animal for suspending the tongue of a cart, carriage, etc., from a harness. |
| 11. | a crosshead attached to the upper piston of an opposed-piston engine with rods to transmit power to the crankshaft. |
| 12. | (in an airplane) a double handle, somewhat like a steering wheel in form, by which the elevators are controlled. |
| 13. | Nautical. a crossbar on the head of the rudder of a small boat, having lines or chains attached to the ends so as to permit the steering of the boat from forward. |
| 14. | spreader beam. |
| 15. | a shaped piece in a garment, fitted about or below the neck and shoulders or about the hips, from which the rest of the garment hangs. |
| 16. | a horizontal piece forming the top of a window frame. |
| 17. | a Y-shaped piece connecting branch pipes with a main soil pipe. |
| 18. | Television. an electromagnetic assembly placed around the neck of a cathode-ray tube to produce and control the scanning motion of electron beams inside the tube. |
| 19. | British Dialect. (esp. in Kent)
|
| 20. | a word formerly used in communications to represent the letter Y. |
| 21. | to put a yoke on; join or couple by means of a yoke. |
| 22. | to attach (a draft animal) to a plow or vehicle: to yoke oxen. |
| 23. | to harness a draft animal to (a plow or vehicle): to yoke a wagon. |
| 24. | to join, couple, link, or unite. |
| 25. | Obsolete. to bring into subjection or servitude. |
| 26. | to be or become joined, linked, or united. |

fork (fôrk) n.
v. tr.
[Middle English forke, digging fork, from Old English forca and from Old North French forque, both from Latin furca.] fork'er n., fork'ful' n. |
yoke (yōk)
n.
See jugum.
fork operating system
A Unix system call used by a process (the "parent") to make a copy (the "child") of itself. The child process is identical to the parent except it has a different process identifier and a zero return value from the fork call. It is assumed to have used no resources.
A fork followed by an exec can be used to start a different process but this can be inefficient and some later Unix variants provide vfork as an alternative mechanism for this.
See also fork bomb.
(1996-12-08)