forked

forked
    adj 1: resembling a fork; divided or separated into two
           branches; "the biramous appendages of an arthropod";
           "long branched hairs on its legson which pollen
           collects"; "a forked river"; "a forked tail"; "forked
           lightning"; "horseradish grown in poor soil may develop
           prongy roots" [syn: {bifurcate}, {biramous}, {branched},
           {forked}, {fork-like}, {forficate}, {pronged}, {prongy}]
    2: having two meanings with intent to deceive; "a sly double
       meaning"; "spoke with forked tongue" [syn: {double},
       {forked}]
    

Fork \Fork\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Forked}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Forking}.]
   1. To shoot into blades, as corn.
      [1913 Webster]

            The corn beginneth to fork.           --Mortimer.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To divide into two or more branches; as, a road, a tree,
      or a stream forks.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Forked \Forked\, a.
   1. Formed into a forklike shape; having a fork; dividing into
      two or more prongs or branches; furcated; bifurcated;
      zigzag; as, the forked lighting.
      [1913 Webster]

            A serpent seen, with forked tongue.   --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Having a double meaning; ambiguous; equivocal.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Cross forked} (Her.), a cross, the ends of whose arms are
      divided into two sharp points; -- called also {cross
      double fitch['e]}. A {cross forked of three points} is a
      cross, each of whose arms terminates in three sharp
      points.

   {Forked counsel}, advice pointing more than one way;
      ambiguous advice. [Obs.] --B. Jonson. -- {Fork"ed*ly},
      adv. -- {Fork"ed*ness}, n.
      [1913 Webster]
    

forked
 adj.,vi.

   1. [common after 1997, esp. in the Linux community] An open-source
   software project is said to have forked or be forked when the project
   group fissions into two or more parts pursuing separate lines of
   development (or, less commonly, when a third party unconnected to the
   project group begins its own line of development). Forking is
   considered a {Bad Thing} -- not merely because it implies a lot of
   wasted effort in the future, but because forks tend to be accompanied
   by a great deal of strife and acrimony between the successor groups
   over issues of legitimacy, succession, and design direction. There is
   serious social pressure against forking. As a result, major forks
   (such as the Gnu-Emacs/XEmacs split, the fissionings of the 386BSD
   group into three daughter projects, and the short-lived GCC/EGCS
   split) are rare enough that they are remembered individually in hacker
   folklore.

   2. [Unix; uncommon; prob.: influenced by a mainstream expletive]
   Terminally slow, or dead. Originated when one system was slowed to a
   snail's pace by an inadvertent {fork bomb}.
    

forked

   (Unix; probably after "fucked") Terminally slow, or dead.
   Originated when one system was slowed to a snail's pace by an
   inadvertent {fork bomb}.

   [{Jargon File}]

   (1994-12-14)
    

52 Moby Thesaurus words for "forked":
      V-shaped, Y-shaped, akimbo, angular, arboreal, arborescent,
      arboriform, bent, biforked, bifurcate, bifurcated, bisected,
      branched, branching, branchlike, cleft, cloven, cornered, crooked,
      crotched, dendriform, dendritic, dichotomous, dimidiate, divided,
      forking, forklike, furcal, furcate, geniculate, geniculated,
      halved, hooked, jagged, knee-shaped, pointed, pronged, ramified,
      ramous, riven, saw-toothed, sawtooth, serrate, sharp,
      sharp-cornered, split, tree-shaped, treelike, tridentlike,
      trifurcate, trifurcated, zigzag