forkhead
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Noun
[edit]forkhead (plural forkheads)
- (biochemistry) A sequence of amino acids that forms a motif, in FOX proteins, that binds to DNA.
- The forked end of a rod in a knuckle joint or similar.
- (obsolete) An arrow with a barbed tip.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
- With that at him a quiv'ring dart he threw, / With so fell force, and villeinous despite, / That through his haberjeon the forkehead flew, / And through the linked mayles empierced quite […]
- (minced oath) Euphemistic form of fuckhead.