neck

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   an opening in a garment for the neck of the wearer

   a part of the garment near the wearer's neck

2. 2
   noun

   a narrow part of an artifact that resembles a neck in position or form

   the banjo had a long neck

3. 3
   noun

   the part of an organism, human or animal, that connects the head to the rest of the body

   I gazed at the giraffe's long neck.

4. 4
   verb

   kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion

   The couple were necking in the back seat of the car

5. 5
   noun

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

   Giraffes have long necks.

6. 6
   noun

   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.

7. 7
   noun

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

   a neck forming the journal of a shaft

8. 8
   noun

   A person's life.

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

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 En…