1867. Albany Argus, 5 Sept. Now, sir, you will please fork over that money to me, and pay your bill, or I'll have the law out of you, as sure as you are born.
1887. Lippincott's Magazine, Aug., p. 199. Just calculate my percentage of our liabilities, and allow me to fork over.
1888. Detroit Free Press, 9 Sept. The dozen screw-drivers came up C. O. D. and he had to fork over for them.
To fork on, verb. phr. (American).—To appropriate. Cf., To freeze on to.
To pitch the fork, verb. phr. (popular).—To tell a pitiful tale.
To eat vinegar with a fork, verb. phr. (common).—A person either over-shrewd or over-snappish is said to have eaten vinegar with a fork. Fr., Avoir mangé de l'oseille. See Nettle.
Forker, subs. (nautical).—A dockyard
thief or fence (q.v.). [From
fork = to steal + er. ]
Forking, subs. (thieves').—1.
Thieving. See Fork.
2. (tailors').—Hurrying and scamping (q.v.).
Forkless, adj. (thieves').—Clumsy;
unworkmanlike; as without forks
(q.v.).
1821. Haggart, Life, p. 40. I met George Bagrie, and William Paterson, alias old Hag, two very willing, but poor snibs, accompanying a lushy cove, and going to work in a very forkless manner
Forloper, subs. (South African).—A
teamster guide.
Forlorn Hope, subs. phr. (colloquial).—A
gamester's last stake.—Grose.
Form, subs. (turf.)—1. Condition;
training; fitness for a contest.
In or out of form = in or out of condition, i.e., fit or unfit for work. Better or Top form, etc. (in comparison). Cf., Colour.
1861. Walsh, The Horse, ch. vi. If it be supposed that two three-year-olds, carrying the same weight, could run a mile and a-half, and come in abreast, it is said that the form of one is equal to that of the other.
1884. Hawley Smart, Post to Finish, ch. xxxv. When fillies, in racing parlance, lose their form at three years old, they are apt to never recover it.
1868. Whyte Melville, White Rose, ch. xxxiv. That mysterious property racing men call 'form.'
2. (colloquial).—Behaviour (with a moral significance: as good form, bad form = agreeable to good manners, breeding, principles, taste, etc., or the opposite). This usage, popularised in racing circles, is good literary English, though the word is commonly printed in inverted commas(" "): Shakspeare (Two Gentlemen of Verona, 4), says, 'Can no way change you to a milder form,' i.e., manner of behaviour.
1871. Orchestra, 13 Jan. This squabble at the Globe may most fitly, perhaps, be characterised by the words 'bad form.'
1871. The Drawing Room Gazette, Dec. 9, p. 5. It is an open question, whether snubbing be not, like cutting, in the worst possible 'form.'
1873. Belgravia, Feb. The demeanour and conduct which the 'golden youth' of the period call 'good form' was known to their fathers as bad manners.
1881. Jas. Payn, Grape from a Thorn, ch. xvii. It would be considered what they call 'bad form' in my daughter Ella if she were known to be a contributor—for pay—to the columns of a magazine.
1890. Speaker, 22 Feb, p. 211, col 2 Still, after all, we doubt very much whether it be fair, or right, or even prudent—it certainly is not 'good form'—to publish to a world of Gallios a lot of irreverent bar-mess and circuit 'good stories,' worked up about living Lord Chancellors, Lord Justices, and other present occupants of the judicial bench.
