neck

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The part of the body joining the head to the shoulders or trunk.
2. n. The part of a garment around or near the neck.
3. n. Anatomy A narrow or constricted part of a structure, as of a bone or organ, that joins its parts; a cervix.
4. n. Anatomy The part of a tooth between the crown and the root.
5. n. A relatively narrow elongation, projection, or connecting part: a neck of land; the neck of a flask.
6. n. Music The narrow part along which the strings of an instrument extend to the pegs.
7. n. Printing See beard.
8. n. Geology Solidified lava filling the vent of an extinct volcano.
9. n. The siphon of a bivalve mollusk, such as a clam.
10. n. A narrow margin: won by a neck.
11. v. Informal To kiss and caress amorously.
12. v. To strangle or decapitate (a fowl).
13. idiom. neck and neck So close that the lead between competitors is virtually indeterminable.
14. idiom. up to (one's) neck Deeply involved or occupied fully: I'm up to my neck in paperwork.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. That part of an animal's body which is between the head and the trunk and connects these parts. In every vertebrate the neck corresponds in extent to the cervical vertebræ, when such are distinguishable. It is usually narrower or more slender than the parts between which It extends. See cuts under muscle.
2. n. Figuratively life, from the breaking or severing of the neck in legal executions: as, to risk one's neck; to save one's neck.
3. n. In entomology:
4. n. The membrane connecting the hard parts of an insect's head with those of the thorax, and visible only when the head is forcibly drawn out.
5. n. The posterior part of the head when this is suddenly narrowed behind the eyes.
6. n. A slender anterior prolongation of the prothorax found in certain Diptera and Hymenoptera.
7. n. In anatomy, a constricted part, or constriction of a part, like or likened to a neck: as, the neck of the thigh-bone; the neck of the bladder; the neck of the uterus. See cut under femur.
8. n. The flesh of the neck and adjoining parts: as, a neck of mutton.
9. n. That part of a thing which corresponds to or resembles the neck of an animal.
10. n. That part of a garment which covers the neck: as, the high neck of a gown.
11. n. The slender upper part of any vessel which has a larger rounded body: as, the neck of a bottle, retort, etc.
12. n. In stringed musical instruments of the viol and lute families, the long slender part extending upward from the body, culminating in the head where the tension is regulated, and bearing in front the finger-board over which the strings (or such of them as are to be stopped) are stretched.
13. n. The part of an axle that passes through the hub of the wheel; also, a diminished part of any shaft resting in a hearing.
14. n. The round shank connecting the blade and the socket of a bayonet.
15. n. The constricted part joining the knob to the breech of a gun.
16. n. The contracted part of a furnace over the bridge, between the stack and the heating- or melting-chamber.
17. n. In printing, the slope between the face and the shoulder of a type. Sometimes called beard.
18. n. In botany:
19. n. In mosses, the collum or tapering base of the capsule.
20. n. In histology, the rim or wall of the archegonium which projects above the prothallium. It rests upon the venter, and is ordinarily composed of four longitudinal rows of cells.
21. n. The filled-up pipe or channel through which volcanic material has found its way upward. In modern volcanic areas the vent through which the lava, cinders, or ashes are ejected and reach the surface is generally concealed from view by the accumulated material which has been thrown out. In eruptive regions belonging to the older geological systems denudation has occasionally removed the overlying debris, so that the connection of the volcanic orifice with the more deep-seated regions can be seen and examined. This is particularly the case in the Carboniferous and Permian volcanic areas of Scotland.
22. n. In the clamp process of brickmaking, one of a series of walls of unburned bricks which together constitute a clamp. The walls are built three bricks thick, about sixty long, and from twenry-four to thirty high, and incline inward against a central upright wall. The sides and top are cased with burned bricks. Encyc. Brit., IV. 281.
23. n. A small bundle of the best ears of a wheatharvest, used in the ceremony of “crying the neck.”
24. n. As a geographical designation, a corner or triangular district: as, Penn's Neck.
25. n. In surgery, a weak point in the shaft of the bone, a little below the tuberosities: so called from the frequency of fracture at this point.
26. To strangle or behead.
27. To bend down or break off by force of the wind: said of ears of corn.

Wiktionary

1. n. The part of body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.
2. n. The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.
3. n. The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.
4. n. The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.
5. n. botany The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.
6. n. music The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted
7. v. To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate
8. v. US To make love; to snog; to intently kiss or cuddle.
9. v. To drink rapidly.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The part of an animal which connects the head and the trunk, and which, in man and many other animals, is more slender than the trunk.
2. n. Any part of an inanimate object corresponding to or resembling the neck of an animal.
3. n. The long slender part of a vessel, as a retort, or of a fruit, as a gourd.
4. n. A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.
5. n. (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.
6. n. (Mech.) A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.
7. n. (Bot.) the point where the base of the stem of a plant arises from the root.
8. v. (Mech.) To reduce the diameter of (an object) near its end, by making a groove around it; -- used with down.
9. v. colloq. To kiss and caress amorously.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a narrow elongated projecting strip of land
2. n. the part of an organism (human or animal) that connects the head to the rest of the body
3. n. an opening in a garment for the neck of the wearer; a part of the garment near the wearer's neck
4. n. a cut of meat from the neck of an animal
5. v. kiss, embrace, or fondle with sexual passion
6. n. a narrow part of an artifact that resembles a neck in position or form