forker
(ˈfɔːkə(r))
[f. fork v. + -er1.]
† 1. = fork n. 2; perh. mispr. for forket. Obs.
| a 1603 T. Cartwright Confut. Rhem. N.T. (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. b. slang. (See quot. 1867).
| 1641 Best Farm. Bks. (Surtees) 35 One of the men is a loader, the other a forker. 1867 Smyth 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. |
† 3. Something forked: a. A forked tongue, a ‘sting’. b. A forked arrow, a fork-head. Obs.
| 1589 Nashe Martins Months Minde Wks. (Grosart) I. 155 His arrowes all are forkers. 1616 J. Lane Contn. Sqr.'s T. ix. 388 A..snake..crawld vp her to stinge, with forker blewe. c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1883) I. 205 An vnderkeeper..with a forker out of his Crosbowe slewe one Oliffe. |
† 4. slang. to wear a forker: to be ‘cornuted’.
| 1606 Marston Parisitaster ii. i, Why? my lord, tis nothing to weare a forker. |
5. (‘In Suffolk, an unpaired partridge.’ F. Hall.)
| 1657 R. Ligon Barbadoes (1673) 4 They [? flying fish]..flye as far as young Partridges, that are forkers. |