Meaning of cocktail fork | Babel Free

Definitions

A small fork usually with two or three tines, used for eating dishes served as appetizers (such as fruit cocktails and shrimp cocktails), and for picking up olives and other small snacks.

Equivalents

Examples

“Oyster and cocktail forks are placed at the extreme right of the cover beyond the teaspoons, or they may be laid across the right side of the service plate underlining the cocktail glass or the oyster service.”

“No fairy tale this. Just the story of Soviet slave labor in icy camps, dumping millions of pounds of fish for your dainty cocktail forks each month—and so beginning to kill off a multi-million dollar American fishing industry, canneries, boatbuilding and gear production.”

“[page 944, column 1] Cocktail fork—used for sea foods. It is a short, slender fork about ½ inch wide at the prong end of the fork. […] [page 945, column 3] On the left are all the forks except the cocktail fork, which is laid to the extreme right of the knives when placed.”

“We just returned from a cruise where there were eleven pieces of flatware on the table for dinner: three knives and a soup spoon to the right of the plate, four forks to the left, and a cocktail fork, teaspoon, and demitasse spoon above the plate. Could you please explain the function of each?”

“Mock Meatballs […] Serve in a shallow serving dish with cocktail forks or toothpicks.”

“[H]ow could you talk a raving lunatic out of drinking his own urine or stabbing his invalid grandmother a hundred times with a cocktail fork?”

“To remove [crab] meat, twist off claws and legs; use a nutcracker to crack shells at the joints. Remove meat with a small cocktail fork or nutpick. Break the body; remove any remaining meat.”

“Remove the shrimp from the marinade and set them on a cutting board. Using a sharp, thin knife, cut each shrimp in half lengthwise, working from head to tail. Stick each halved shrimp onto the end of a cocktail fork.”

“My mother had always eaten straight out of jars and cans, with a cocktail fork as her sole utensil. It was one of her peculiarities. / "Hi, Ma." / Her cocktail fork was balanced between her thumb and index finger, close to her mouth, as if a joint that had just been passed to her and she wasn't sure what to do with it.”

CEFR level