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 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”). More at nook. Mostly displaced halse (“neck, throat”).

A human neck.

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /nɛk/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛk

neck (plural necks)

An Australiasian Darter extends her long neck

1. (anatomy) The part of body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.
2. The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.
3. The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.
4. The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.
5. (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, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →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.

6. (music) The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted
7. A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.
8. (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

9. The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.
10. (architecture) The gorgerin of a capital.
11. (firearms) The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.
12. (informal, MLE, slang) A falsehood; a lie.

• throat

neck (third-person singular simple present necks, present participle necking, simple past and past participle necked)

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

   Go neck yourself.

2. (chiefly US) To make love; to intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.

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

   Synonyms: French kiss, grope, pet, smoodge, snog, snuggle, smooch

3. To drink rapidly.
   • 2019 January 26, Kitty Empire, “The Streets review – the agony and ecstasy of a great everyman”, in The Guardian‎:

     The 40-year-old 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.

   • 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.

   Synonym: chug

4. 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.

• necking

• Enck