Entry · Friday, June 26, 2026
Plate N. A container handler, documented from the three-quarter rear, the only angle that does its counterweight justice.
Photo by MOHD FADZILLAH SULAIMAN on Unsplash
Forklift, Heavy Container
/FORK-lift, HEV-ee kuhn-TAY-ner/ n.- 1. A port-grade lifting machine built to hoist freight containers two and three high, distinguished by a cast counterweight so substantial the front forks read as a courtesy.
- 2. colloq. The reason a container yard gets paved to aircraft-runway spec.
In a sentence,
"The thiccc container forklift rolled into the yard and the weighbridge at the gate simply gave up. Its rear end arrives a full second before the rest of it."
Etymology,
From fork, the prongs nobody photographs, plus lift, the verb doing all the advertising. The heavy was added later by the loading dock that filed for reinforcement.