Word Direct Answers

What does "neck" mean?

Neck: Any part of an inanimate object corresponding to or resembling the neck of an animal; as: (a) The long slender part of a vessel, as a retort, or of a fruit, as a gourd. (b) A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts. (c) (Mus.) That part of a violin, guitar, or similar instrument, which extends from the head to the body, and on which is the finger board or fret board.

Additional senses

  1. 2.(Mech.) A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it; as, a neck forming the journal of a shaft.
  2. 3.(Bot.) the point where the base of the stem of a plant arises from the root. Neck and crop, completely; wholly; altogether; roughly and at once. [Colloq.] -- Neck and neck (Racing), so nearly equal that one cannot be said to be before the other; very close; even; side by side. -- Neck of a capital. (Arch.) See Gorgerin. -- Neck of a cascabel (Gun.), the part joining the knob to the base of the breech. -- Neck of a gun, the small part of the piece between the chase and the swell of the muzzle. -- Neck of a tooth (Anat.), the constriction between the root and the crown. -- Neck or nothing (Fig.), at all risks. -- Neck verse. (a) The verse formerly read to entitle a party to the benefit of clergy, said to be the first verse of the fifty-first Psalm, "Miserere mei," etc. Sir W. Scott. (b) Hence, a verse or saying, the utterance of which decides one's fate; a shibboleth. These words, "bread and cheese," were their neck verse or shibboleth to distinguish them; all pronouncing "broad and cause," being presently put to death. Fuller. -- Neck yoke. (a) A bar by which the end of the tongue of a wagon or carriage is suspended from the collars of the harnesses. (b) A device with projecting arms for carrying things (as buckets of water or sap) suspended from one's shoulders. -- On the neck of, immediately after; following closely. "Commiting one sin on the neck of another." W. Perkins. -- Stiff neck, obstinacy in evil or wrong; inflexible obstinacy; contumacy. "I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck." Deut. xxxi.
  3. 4.-- To break the neck of, to destroy the main force of. "What they presume to borrow from her sage and virtuous rules... breaks the neck of their own cause." Milton. -- To harden the neck, to grow obstinate; to be more and more perverse and rebellious. Neh. ix.
  4. 5.-- To tread on the neck of, to oppress; to tyrannize over.
  5. 6.To reduce the diameter of (an object) near its end, by making a groove around it; -- used with down; as, to neck down a shaft. v. t. & i. To kiss and caress amorously. n. necking

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