Morton's Fork
Preserved but no longer current.
Meaning · English
John Morton (c. 1420-1500), Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, intro- duced a plan for increasing the royal revenues, in the tone of Henry VII, so arranged that nobody should escape.
Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)
Sources & notes
Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.
Common questions
What does “Morton's Fork” mean?
John Morton (c. 1420-1500), Cardinal Archbishop of Canterbury, intro- duced a plan for increasing the royal revenues, in the tone of Henry VII, so arranged that nobody should escape.
Is “Morton's Fork” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.