neck
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Etymology 1
From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak (“neck”), Saterland Frisian Näkke (“neck”), West Frisian nekke (“neck”), Dutch nek (“neck”), German Low German Nack (“neck”), German Nacken (“nape of the neck”), Danish nakke (“neck”), Swedish nacke (“nape of the neck”), Icelandic hnakki (“neck”), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape”). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc (“hook, penis”), Welsh cnwch (“joint, knob”), Latvian knaūķis (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).
Pronunciation
Noun
neck (plural necks)
- (anatomy) The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.
- Giraffes have long necks.
- 2019 October 15, ZA/UM, Robert Kurvitz, quoting You, Disco Elysium, →OCLC:
- Mother, help me, there's a head attached to my neck and I'm in it.
- The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.
- The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.
- The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.
- (botany) The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.
- 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page 5:
- Archegonia are surrounded early in their development by the juvenile perianth, through the slender beak of which the elongated neck of the fertilized archegonium protrudes.
- (music) The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted
- A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.
- (engineering) A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.
- a neck forming the journal of a shaft
- The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.
- (architecture) The gorgerin of a capital.
- (geology) A volcanic plug, solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.
- (firearms) The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.
- (figurative) A person's life.
- to risk one's neck; to save someone's neck
- (informal, MLE, slang) A falsehood; a lie.
- (slang) Fellatio
- 2016, “Pimptations”, performed by Smino:
- Shorty throw neck like a geese
She make me speak Portuguese
- 2018, “Florida Thang”, in The South Got Something To Say, performed by Pouya:
- She drop neck for a check and a paystub
- (now historical) A bundle of wheat used in certain English harvest ceremonies.
- 1837, R. A. R., The Everyday Book, page 1169:
- The person with 'the neck' stands in the centre, grasping it with both his hands
- 1911, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, volume 7, page 266:
- "The neck" is generally hung up in the farmhouse, where it remains for two or three years.
Synonyms
Derived terms
- albatross around one's neck
- albatross round one's neck
- boatneck
- bootneck
- bottleneck
- brass neck
- brass-neck
- breakneck
- break one's neck
- break someone's neck
- breathe down someone's neck
- bullneck
- bust one's neck
- catch it in the neck
- checkup from the neck up
- cowlneck
- crewneck
- crew neck
- crookneck
- dead from the neck up
- deer-neck
- Derbyshire neck
- devil-on-the-neck
- drake's-neck green
- drop neck
- ewe neck
- fall on someone's neck
- fall upon someone's neck
- fiddleneck
- fiddler's neck
- foreneck
- frilled neck lizard
- frilled-neck lizard
- frillneck
- gamer neck
- get it in the neck
- give neck
- gooseneck
- halterneck
- halter neck
- harden one's neck
- have the world by the neck
- hindneck
- jewel-neck
- leatherneck
- legs all the way to one's neck
- limberneck
- littleneck
- longneck
- long-neck
- midneck
- my neck
- neckache
- neck and crop
- neck and heels
- neck and neck/neck-and-neck
- neckband
- neckbeard
- neck bearing
- neckbeef
- neckbiter
- neckbone
- neckbrace
- neck-brace
- neck brace
- neckcloth
- neck-cloth
- neck corset
- neckdeep
- neck deep
- neck-deep
- neck down
- neckdown
- neck eel
- necker
- neckercher
- neckerchief (from kerchief)
- neckful
- neck-gable
- neck gaiter
- neck gaiter
- neckgear
- neck guard
- neck-guard
- neckholder
- neckhole
- neckinger
- neck in neck
- neck joint
- neck kerchief
- neck-kerchief
- neck knife
- necklace
- neckland
- neckless
- necklet
- necklift
- necklike
- neckline
- necklock
- neckmold
- neckmould
- neck of the woods
- neck oil
- neck or nothing
- neck pad
- neckpiece
- neck pillow
- neckplate
- neck plate
- neck ring
- neckroll
- neckspring
- neckstrap
- necktie
- neck-turner
- neck up
- neck verse
- neckwarmer
- neckweed
- neckyoke
- neck yoke
- neknomination
- open-neck
- pain in the neck
- pencil-neck
- pencil neck
- polo neck, polo-neck
- polo neck sweater
- pseudoneck
- redneck
- red-necked buzzard
- red neck syndrome
- renecked
- ringneck
- ring-neck
- risk one's neck
- rollneck
- roughneck
- save one's neck
- scoop neck
- scoopneck
- shitneck
- shunting neck
- side-neck
- sideneck
- snakeneck
- squareneck
- stick one's neck out
- stiff neck
- stiffnecked
- stiff-necked
- swan neck
- swan neck deformity
- tech neck
- text neck
- topneck
- turtle-neck
- turtleneck
- turtle neck
- turtle-neck sweater
- up to one's neck
- up to one's neck in alligators
- V-neck
- volcanic neck
- wind one's neck in
- wryneck
Translations
part of body connecting the head and the trunk
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corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts
part of a shirt, dress etc.
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tapered part of a bottle
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extension of stringed instrument
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long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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See also
Verb
neck (third-person singular simple present necks, present participle necking, simple past and past participle necked)
- (transitive, slang) To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate.
- Go neck yourself.
- (intransitive, informal, chiefly US) To make love; to intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.
- Synonyms: French kiss, grope, pet, smoodge, snog, snuggle, smooch
- Alan and Betty were necking in the back of a car when Betty's dad caught them.
- 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 326:
- Molly had been in love with Sick Boy since he necked with her in a seedy disco-bar in Leith a few weeks ago. Sick Boy had made a drunken point about HIV transmission and to illustrate it had spent most of the night french-kissing her.
- (transitive, slang) To drink or swallow rapidly.
- Synonym: chug
- 2005, Stephen Price, Monkey Man, page 146:
- Actually, mostly I swan around in my silver sports car, necking drugs, and feeling sorry for myself.
- 2006, Sarah Johnstone, Tom Masters, London:
- In the dim light, punters sit sipping raspberry-flavoured Tokyo martinis, losing the freestyle sushi off their chopsticks or necking Asahi beer.
- 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire [pseudonym], “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 8 April 2019:
- The 40-year-old [Mike Skinner] is happy to put his body on the line in other ways, swapping a mug of tea for a fan's double pint of lager and messily necking it in one.
- (intransitive) To decrease in diameter.
- 2007, John H. Bickford, Introduction to the Design and Behavior of Bolted Joints, page 272:
- Since this temperature would place the bolt in its creep range, it will slowly stretch, necking down as it does so. Eventually it will get too thin to support the weight, and the bolt will break.
Derived terms
Translations
hang by the neck; strangle; kill
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make love
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drink rapidly
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Etymology 2
From Danish nøkke, Swedish näck.
Noun
neck (plural necks)
- (folklore) A shapeshifting water spirit in Germanic mythology and folklore; a nix.
- 1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 234:
- The Neck no more upon the river sings.
And no Mermaid to bleach her linen flings
Upon the waves in the mild solar ray.
Translations
folklore: shapeshifting water spirit — see nix
Anagrams
Etymology
Noun
neck m (plural necks)
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from English neck.
Pronunciation
Noun
neck m
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