forkern.
/ˈfɔːkə/ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > setting table > table utensils > [noun] > cutlery > fork
fork1463
flesh-crook1465
prong1492
forket1583
forkera1603
runcible spoon1870
a1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhemists New Test. (1618) 416 The Italians now take their meate with a forker.
2. One who forks:
a. One who throws up (hay, etc.) with a fork.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > harvesting > [noun] > forker (of hay, etc.)
forkera1642
a1642 H. Best Farming & Memorandum Bks. (1984) 38 One of the men is a loader, the other a forker.
b. slang. (See quot. 1867.)
ΘΚΠ
the mind > possession > taking > stealing or theft > thief > [noun]
thief688
bribera1387
stealer1508
taker?a1513
goodfellow1566
snatcher1575
lift1591
liftera1592
larcin1596
Tartar1602
lime-twig1606
outparter1607
Tartarian1608
flick1610
puggard1611
gilt1620
nim1630
highwayman1652
cloyer1659
out-trader1660
Robin Goodfellow1680
birdlime1705
gyp1728
filch1775
kiddy1780
snaveller1781
larcenist1803
pincher1814
geach1821
wharf-rat1823
toucher1837
larcener1839
snammer1839
drummer1856
gun1857
forker1867
gunsmith1869
nabber1880
thiever1899
tea-leaf1903
gun moll1908
nicker1909
knocker-off1926
possum1945
scuffler1961
rip-off1969
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. Forkers, those who reside in seaports for the sake of stealing dockyard stores, or buying them, knowing them to be stolen.
a. A forked tongue, a ‘sting’. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > [noun] > instruments of defence or offence > sting
prickc1350
stang1382
stingle1398
prickle?c1425
forker1616
dart1665
the world > animals > animal body > general parts > head and neck > [noun] > mouth > tongue > forked
forker1616
1616 J. Lane Contin. Squire's Tale ix. 388 A..snake..crawld vp her to stinge, with forker blewe.
b. A forked arrow, a fork-head. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
society > armed hostility > military equipment > weapon > missile > arrow > [noun] > barbed arrow
forked-head1574
forker1589
fork-head1590
1589 ‘Marphoreus’ Martins Months Minde To Rdr. sig. B4 His arrowes all are forkers.
a1641 J. Smyth Berkeley MSS (1883) I. 205 An vnderkeeper..with a forker out of his Crosbowe slewe one Oliffe.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > licentiousness > unchastity > fornication, adultery, or incest > commit fornication, adultery, or incest [verb (intransitive)] > commit adultery > be dishonoured by wife's adultery
to wear the horn(s)?1515
to wear a forker1606
1606 J. Marston Parasitaster ii. i Why? my lord, tis nothing to weare a forker.
5. (‘In Suffolk, an unpaired partridge.’ F. Hall.)
ΘΚΠ
the world > animals > birds > order Galliformes (fowls) > family Phasianidae (pheasants, etc.) > [noun] > member of genus Perdix (partridge) > unpaired
forker1673
1673 R. Ligon True Hist. Barbadoes (new ed.) 4 They [? flying fish]..flye as far as young Partridges, that are forkers [1657 farkers].
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online September 2020).
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n.1589