neck

Meanings

Noun

• The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.
• 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.
• The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.
• 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.
• A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.
• The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.
• The gorgerin of a capital.
• A volcanic plug, solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.
• The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.
• A person's life.
• A falsehood; a lie.
• shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore

Verb

• To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate
• To make love; to intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.
• To drink rapidly.
• To decrease in diameter.

Related

Similar words

• cervix, collum

Origin

• From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, *hnæcca, from Proto-Germanic *hnakkô, from Proto-Indo-European *knog-, *kneg-. Cognate with Scots nek, North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak, Saterland Frisian Näkke, West Frisian nekke, Dutch nek, German Low German Nack, German Nacken, Danish nakke, Swedish nacke, Icelandic hnakki, Tocharian A kñuk. Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc, Welsh cnwch, Latvian knaūķis. nek. More at nook. Displaced halse and swire.