Bracket \Brack"et\, n. (Gunnery) A figure determined by firing a projectile beyond a target and another short of it, as a basis for ascertaining the proper elevation of the piece; -- only used in the phrase, to establish a bracket. After the bracket is established shots are fired with intermediate elevations until the exact range is obtained. In the United States navy it is called fork.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Fork \Fork\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Forked; p. pr. & vb. n. Forking.]

1. To shoot into blades, as corn.

The corn beginneth to fork. --Mortimer.

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

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Fork \Fork\, v. t. To raise, or pitch with a fork, as hay; to dig or turn over with a fork, as the soil.

Forking the sheaves on the high-laden cart. --Prof. Wilson.

To fork over or out, to hand or pay over, as money. [Slang] --G. Eliot.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
 

Fork \Fork\ (f[^o]rj), n. [AS. forc, fr. L. furca. Cf. Fourch['e], Furcate.]

1. An instrument consisting of a handle with a shank terminating in two or more prongs or tines, which are usually of metal, parallel and slightly curved; -- used from piercing, holding, taking up, or pitching anything.

2. Anything furcate or like a fork in shape, or furcate at the extremity; as, a tuning fork.

3. One of the parts into which anything is furcated or divided; a prong; a branch of a stream, a road, etc.; a barbed point, as of an arrow.

Let it fall . . . though the fork invade The region of my heart. --Shak.

A thunderbolt with three forks. --Addison.

4. The place where a division or a union occurs; the angle or opening between two branches or limbs; as, the fork of a river, a tree, or a road.

5. The gibbet. [Obs.]

--Bp. Butler.

Fork beam (Shipbuilding), a half beam to support a deck, where hatchways occur.

Fork chuck (Wood Turning), a lathe center having two prongs for driving the work.

Fork head.
   (a) The barbed head of an arrow.
   (b) The forked end of a rod which forms part of a knuckle joint.

In fork. (Mining) A mine is said to be in fork, or an engine to ``have the water in fork,'' when all the water is drawn out of the mine. --Ure.

The forks of a river or a road, the branches into which it divides, or which come together to form it; the place where separation or union takes place.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)