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Neck and neck   /nɛk ənd nɛk/   Listen
noun
Neck  n.  
1.
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.
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.
3.
(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.
4.
(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.
(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."
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; on the heel of. "Committing one sin on the neck of another."
Stiff neck, obstinacy in evil or wrong; inflexible obstinacy; contumacy. "I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck."
To break the neck of, to destroy the main force of; to break the back of. "What they presume to borrow from her sage and virtuous rules... breaks the neck of their own cause."
To harden the neck, to grow obstinate; to be more and more perverse and rebellious.
To tread on the neck of, to oppress; to tyrannize over.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Neck and neck" Quotes from Famous Books



... vapour issuing from it showed an excess of steam. The blower whistled, the steam blew off in vapoury clouds, the pace increased, the passengers shouted, the engine gained on the horse, soon it lapped him—the silk was plied—the race was neck and neck, nose and nose—then the engine passed the horse, and a great hurrah hailed the victory. But it was not repeated, for, just at this time, when the grey's master was about giving up, the band which draws the pulley which moved the blower slipped from the drum, the safety valve ceased ...
— Railway Adventures and Anecdotes - extending over more than fifty years • Various
... rushing in between the gate-posts of the stone wall, and it looked like a run-away. They were riderless and driverless, and if there had been any harness, there was not a vestige of it to be seen; still, they kept neck and neck, which means in horsey language side by side, and on they came in the maddest fashion. Tattine stood on the front porch and watched them in high glee, and not a bit afraid was she, though they were coming ...
— Tattine • Ruth Ogden
... bruited throughout the town—in a ferment of excitement, because of the closeness of the contest—that the two candidates, racing gallantly neck and neck, had come under the wire together with not so much as the point of a ...
— The Mystery of Witch-Face Mountain and Other Stories • Charles Egbert Craddock
... increase and decrease from his various districts printed on postcards and circulated monthly among the district managers, postcards endorsed with such stimulating comments in red type as "Well done Cardiff!" or "What ails Portsmouth?"—the results had been amazingly good; "neck and neck work," he said, "everywhere"—and thence they passed to the question of confidential reports and surprise inspectors. Thereby they came to the rights and wrongs ...
— The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman • H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
... neck and neck with Burgo was Pollock, the sporting literary gentleman. Pollock had but two horses to his stud, and was never known to give much money for them;—and he weighed without his boots, fifteen stones! No one ever knew how Pollock did it;—more especially as all the world ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope


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