1725. New Canting Dict., s.v.
6. (tailors’ and venery).—The crutch (q.v.), nockandro (q.v.), or Twist
(q.v.). [Thus, a bit on a fork = the female pudendum; a grind (q.v.).]
Fr., ‘Fourcheure, that part of the bodie from whence the thighs
depart.’—Cotgrave.
Verb (old).—1. To steal; specifically to pick a pocket by inserting the
middle and forefinger. Also to put one’s forks down: Fr., vol à la
fourchette.
1690. B. E., Dict. of the Canting Crew. Let’s fork him, c. Let us
pick that man’s pocket, the newest and most dextrous way; it is to
thrust the fingers straight, stiff, open, and very quick into the
pocket, and so closing them hook what can be held between them.
1785. Grose, Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. Let us fork him.
1830. Lytton, Paul Clifford, ch. xvi. Yet so keen was his appetite
for the sport, that the veteran appropriator absolutely burst into
tears at not having ‘forked more.’
1878. C. Hindley, Life and Times of James Catnach. Frisk the Cly
and fork the Rag, Draw the fogies plummy.