Neck Definition

nĕk
necked, necking, necks
noun
necks
That part of a human or animal joining the head to the body, including the part of the backbone between the skull and the shoulders.
Webster's New World
A narrow or constricted part of a structure, as of a bone or an organ, that joins its parts; a cervix.
American Heritage Medicine
The narrowest part of any object, considered to be like a neck.
Webster's New World
That part of a garment which covers, encircles, or is nearest the neck.
Webster's New World
The narrow part along which the strings of an instrument extend to the pegs.
American Heritage
Synonyms:
verb
necked, necking
To engage in amorous kissing, hugging, and caressing.
Webster's New World
To kiss and caress amorously.
American Heritage
To strangle or decapitate (a fowl).
American Heritage

To drink rapidly.

Wiktionary
To decrease in diameter.
Wiktionary
idiom
neck and neck
  • So close that the lead between competitors is virtually indeterminable.
American Heritage
up to (one's) neck
  • Deeply involved or occupied fully:

    I'm up to my neck in paperwork.

American Heritage
break one's neck
  • to try very hard
Webster's New World
get it in the neck
  • to be severely reprimanded or punished
Webster's New World
neck and crop
  • completely; entirely
Webster's New World

Other Word Forms of Neck

Noun

Singular:
neck
Plural:
necks

Idioms, Phrasal Verbs Related to Neck

Origin of Neck

  • 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 Näcke (“neck"), West Frisian nekke (“neck"), Dutch nek (“neck"), Low German Nakke (“neck"), German Nacken (“nape of the neck"), Danish nakke (“neck"), Swedish nacke (“neck"), Icelandic hnakki (“neck"), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape"). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (cf. Old English hnocc 'hook, penis', Welsh cnwch 'joint, knob', Latvian knaÅ«Ä·is 'dwarf', Ancient Greek knychóō 'to draw together'). More at nook.

    From Wiktionary

  • Middle English nekke from Old English hnecca

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

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