Tine ( structural ) - Wikipedia Tine ( structural ) This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( December 2009 ) A three - tine pitchfork Tines or prongs or teeth are parallel or branching spikes forming parts of a tool or natural object. They are used to spear, hook, move or otherwise act on other objects. They may be made of metal, wood, bone or other hard, strong materials. The number of tines ( also written tynes ) on tools varies widely -- a pitchfork may have just two, a garden fork may have four, and a rake or harrow many. Tines may be blunt, such as those on a fork used as an eating utensil ; or sharp, as on a pitchfork ; or even barbed, as on a trident. The terms `` tine '' and `` prong '' are mostly interchangeable. A tooth of a comb is a tine. Tines and prongs occur in nature -- for example, forming the branched bony antlers of deer or the forked horns of pronghorn antelopes. The term `` tine '' is also used for mountains, such as the fictional Silvertine in The Lord of the Rings. In chaos theory ( physics, non-linear dynamics ), the branches of a bifurcation diagram are called tines and subtines. Look up tine in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. References Jump up ^ Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD - ROM ( v. 4.0 ) © Oxford University Press 2009. Tine, n. 1. This tool article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. This metalworking article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tine_(structural)&oldid=760768957 '' Categories : Tool stubs Metalworking stubs Tools Hidden categories : Articles lacking sources from December 2009 All articles lacking sources All stub articles Talk About Wikipedia Tools Emiliàn e rumagnòl Italiano Norsk Edit links This page was last edited on 18 January 2017, at 23 : 46. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: what do you call the spikes on a fork
Answer: Tines