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neck

noun
/nɛk/

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from *knog-✻
  2. inherited from *hnakkô✻ — “nape, neck”
  3. inherited from hnecca
  4. inherited from nekke

Definitions

  1. The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.

    • Giraffes have long necks.
    • Mother, help me, there's a head attached to my neck and I'm in it.

  2. The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.

  3. The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.

  4. ›+ 18 more definitions

    1. The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.

    2. The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach…

      The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.

      • 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.

    3. The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted

    4. A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting…

      A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.

    5. A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.

      • a neck forming the journal of a shaft

    6. The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.

    7. The gorgerin of a capital.

    8. A volcanic plug, solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.

    9. The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.

    10. A person's life.

      • to risk one's neck; to save someone's neck

    11. A falsehood

      A falsehood; a lie.

    12. Fellatio

      • Shorty throw neck like a geese She make me speak Portuguese
      • She drop neck for a check and a paystub

    13. A bundle of wheat used in certain English harvest ceremonies.

      • The person with 'the neck' stands in the centre, grasping it with both his hands
      • "The neck" is generally hung up in the farmhouse, where it remains for two or three years.

    14. To hang by the neck

      To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate.

      • Go neck yourself.

    15. To intently kiss or cuddle

      To intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.

      • Alan and Betty were necking in the back of a car when Betty's dad caught them.
      • 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.

    16. To drink or swallow rapidly.

      • Actually, mostly I swan around in my silver sports car, necking drugs, and feeling sorry for myself.
      • In the dim light, punters sit sipping raspberry-flavoured Tokyo martinis, losing the freestyle sushi off their chopsticks or necking Asahi beer.
      • 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.

    17. To decrease in diameter.

      • 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.

    18. A shapeshifting water spirit in Germanic mythology and folklore

      A shapeshifting water spirit in Germanic mythology and folklore; a nix.

      • The Neck no more upon the river sings. And no Mermaid to bleach her linen flings Upon the waves in the mild solar ray.

The neighborhood

Derived

above the neck rule, albatross around one's neck, albatross round one's neck, boatneck, bootneck, bottleneck, brass neck, brass-neck, breakneck, break one's neck, breathe down someone's neck, bullneck, bust one's neck, catch it in the neck, checkup from the neck up, chicken-neck, Codd-neck bottle, cowlneck, crew neck, crewneck, 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 · +143 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at neck. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01neck02humans03human04belonging05owned06owner07ship08vessel09bottle

A definitional loop anchored at neck. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at neck

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA