to stick a fork in
4
8.4
- phrasal verb
- /stɪk ə fɔrk ɪn/
- Informal
:
clavar un tenedor
- To see if the cake is ready, just stick a fork in it and check if it comes out clean.
Examples
-
Stick a fork in it, it's done.
Blog text (28) -
Stick a fork in us.
Blog text (25) -
Stick a fork in it.
Blog text (6) -
Stick a fork in them, they're done.
-
Stick a fork in this turkey - he's done.
Blog text (30) -
After months of negotiations, the company decided to stick a fork in the project and move on.
-
Once she realized he had no intention of changing, she knew it was time to stick a fork in the relationship.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The literal cooking sense — poking food with a fork to check doneness — is directly derivable from 'stick' + 'fork' + 'in', so a B1 learner who knows the words will understand that use. However, the idiomatic extension meaning 'something is finished/over' is a pragmatic metaphorical inference not fully predictable from the constituents and likely requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Stick a fork in comes from the kitchen: cooks stick a fork into food to check if it is soft and cooked. If the fork goes in easily, the food is 'done', so people use the image to say something is completely 'finished' or 'over'.