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Glite Dictionary
🌳 To split away 💻 To copy and split
to fork off

to fork off

5.9
To leave a main road and go in a different direction
  • phrasal verb
  • /fɔrk ɔf/
translation icon : desviarse
  • As you drive along the scenic route, be sure to take the exit where the road forks off toward the coastline.

Examples

  • The horse trail forks off.

    Brigham City (2001)

  • At the bottom of the hollow, just past the plank bridge where the brook was the color of rust, Smathers Road forked off Jimtown Road, heading up the hill through the deep, cool shadows of the forest.

    Fiction book (2002)

  • The trail forks off into two paths; one leads to the beach while the other goes into the forest.

  • At the intersection, the road forks off into local streets, giving drivers a choice for their journey.

Synonyms

to branch off
vsto fork off
4 3.3

Leave a main route, area, or topic and go in a different direction

emphasizes splitting routes or groups rather than topic or subject shifts

Antonyms

to join
∞ 1.0

Connect two things so they become attached

How Divergent

to fork off
5.9
veering
1 5.3

Surface Forms

fork off infinitive
forked off past
forked off past participle
forking off present participle
forks off third person singular

Morphology

fork + off

The meaning is directly derivable from 'fork' (to branch/split) plus 'off' (away), so the sense of branching away from the original is transparent; the computing use is a domain-specific extension but follows the same compositional logic. A B1 learner who knows the constituents would plausibly infer that 'fork off' means to create a branch or separate version away from the original.

Etymology

The verb fork off comes from the picture of a road that splits like a fork: one path forks off from the main road and becomes a new 'branch'. So fork off means 'to separate' or 'go in a different direction'.