Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To divide into branches; fork.
  • adjective Divided into branches; forked.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Forked; branching like the prongs of a fork.
  • To branch; fork; divide into branches.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Forked; branching like a fork.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Forked, branched; divided at one end into parts.
  • verb To fork or branch out.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb divide into two or more branches so as to form a fork

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin furcātus, forked, from Latin furca, fork.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Medieval Latin furcātus ("forked, branched"), from Latin furca ("fork").

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Examples

  • We have at different times heard complaints of these fronds being simply furcate, when the same plant, after being subjected to a greater amount of heat and moisture, produced fronds very heavily tasseled, and partaking of an elegant vase-shaped appearance.

    Scientific American Supplement, No. 447, July 26, 1884 Various

  • The abdomen of the young Cirripede is produced beneath the anus into a long tail-like appendage which is furcate at the extremity, and over the anus there is a second long, spine-like process; the abdomen in the Rhizocephala terminates in two short points, -- in a

    Facts and Arguments for Darwin Fritz Muller 1859

  • The tail soon acquires the furcate form with which we made acquaintance in the last Prawn-Zoea described.

    Facts and Arguments for Darwin Fritz Muller 1859

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