neck (nĕk)
n.

1. The part of the body joining the head to the shoulders or trunk.
2. The part of a garment around or near the neck.
3. Anatomy.
   1. A narrow or constricted part of a structure, as of a bone or organ, that joins its parts; a cervix.
   2. The part of a tooth between the crown and the root.
4. A relatively narrow elongation, projection, or connecting part: a neck of land; the neck of a flask.
5. Music. The narrow part along which the strings of an instrument extend to the pegs.
6. Printing. See beard (sense 5).
7. Geology. Solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.
8. The siphon of a bivalve mollusk, such as a clam.
9. A narrow margin: won by a neck.

v., necked, neck·ing, necks.

v.intr. Informal
To kiss and caress amorously.

v.tr.
To strangle or decapitate (a fowl).

idioms:

neck and neck

1. So close that the lead between competitors is virtually indeterminable.

up to (one's) neck

1. Deeply involved or occupied fully: I'm up to my neck in paperwork.

[Middle English nekke, from Old English hnecca.]

neckless neck'less adj.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

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