| 释义 |
forky, a.|ˈfɔːkɪ|
[f. fork n. + -y1.]
1. Shaped like a fork, forked.
Quot. 1508 s.v. forcy may belong here (the sense is not clear).
1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iii. 666 A Snake..brandishing his forky Tongue. a1700― Ovid's Met. i. 425 Parnassus whose forky rise Mounts thro' the clouds. 1727Swift Circumcision E. Curll Wks. 1755 III. i. 166 A meagre man with a..black forky beard. 1762Falconer Shipwr. i. 256 A skilful marksman o'er his head suspends The forky prongs. 1808Scott Marm. i. viii, The last..On high his forky pennon bore. a1851D. Moir Sir Eliduc Poet. Wks. 1852 II. 192 The tree by the forky lightnings scathed.
b. fig. and allusively.
1702Watts Epit. Will. III, x, Slander gnaw her forky tongue. 1821Byron Cain i. i. 227 Those he spake to with his forky tongue.
2. Comb., as forky-tongued adj.
1727Watts Poems (1743) 235 Cares never come With..Malice forky-tongued.
Hence ˈforkiness, the condition of being forky.
1611Cotgr., Fourcheure, a forkinesse. 1766Pennant Zool. (1768) II. 242 The house swallow is distinguished from all others by the superior forkiness of its tail. |