Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to swallow, esp. alcohol or (latterly) drugs.

1514		A. Barclay Eclogue (1846) 26: She couthe well flater and glose with hym and hym, / necke a mesure, her smyrkynge gan her sale: She made ten shylynge of one barell of ale!
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1899		C. Rook Hooligan Nights 9: I tumbled [he] was a stranger soon as I ketch sight of ’is dial. He was necking four-ale in the pub ’cross the way.
1917		B.E.F. Times 8 Sept. (2006) 223/2: Just go to your bottle, and neck a wee drop.
1922		DN V 147: We struck a jazz-garden where a bunch of bun-dusters were necking it.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 270: I’ll come over [...] when I’ve made sure this bloke ain’t going to neck everything wet round here.
1959		B. Naughton ‘Boozer’s Labourer’ in Late Night on Watling Street (1969) 77: You should be able to handle more than this lot after necking five times as much.
1966		G. Fletcher Down Among the Meths Men 18: Quarter to ten and you’ve alredy necked a bottle.
1999		Guardian Guide 26 June–2 July 11: Teenagers necking down LSD cubes.
2007		S. Maconie Pies and Prejudice (2008) 10: Happy hours, during which office workers in Top Man suits would neck cheap Löwenbräu.
2013		D. Whish-Wilson Zero at the Bone [ebook] Reggie necked the rest of his drink.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 224: Do some shots, neck some pills.
2016		Times 19 Aug. 🌐 Tap water, I find, always seems to help me to neck more wine.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 87: Swann necked the rest of his coffee.
2021		D. Telegraph 11 Oct. 🌐 ‘I stood [...] having a glass a of vodka which more or less neat and I then necked it then had another one’.

2. pertaining to violence, lit. or fig. to the neck.

3. (US) to stare [abbr. rubberneck v. (3)].

1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 61: Also used as a verb, to ‘neck,’ to peer, to watch.
1931		Irwin Amer. Tramp and Und. Sl. 133: Neck. – To stare at or watch closely. The word came from the much older ‘rubber-neck’.
1962		Ragen & Finston World’s Toughest Prison 809: neck – To stare at or watch closely.

4. (orig. US, also neck on) to pursue sexual pleasure that stops short of intercourse; usu. teen use and practice [orig. UK dial. neck, to court; i.e. to put one’s arm around someone’s neck].

1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 71: Guess he wasn’t so slow! Taking gals out and necking them!
1930		E. Glyn Flirt & Flapper 8: Flirt: What’s a petting party? [...] Flapper: We sit about in the half-dark and let the boys neck us a bit. Flirt: What is ‘to neck’? Flapper: Oh! well, it’s kiss and cuddle — and — er —.
1939		P. Cheyney Don’t Get Me Wrong (1956) 19: There ain’t a guy in Mexico / Can neck a dame like me.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 294: The days before his marriage when he had necked with his wife for long passionate hours.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 207: I made the acquaintance of a girl and we necked all the way to Indianapolis.
1953		Mad mag. Jan.–Feb. 24: Cahmon Renf’! let’s neck!
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 53: The girls [...] went out in the backyard and necked with us.
1961		T. Taylor Baron’s Court All Change (2011) 27: [H]ow different it was necking with her, to necking with that ginger-haired chick at the youth club.
1974		(con. 1960s) R. Price Wanderers 224: He found Eugene outside necking on a park bench.
1984		Flame : a Life on the Game 55: Tom and I necked in the back of the car.
1984		Benjamin & Pearl Limericks Down Under 37: [She] necks with a neighbour’s koala.
1993		I. Welsh Trainspotting 45: Sick Boy [...] was necking with the woman he’d been chatting up.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 189: Ee must uv bin leakin int pub [...] or when we wuh neckin in that shop doorwer.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 84: Ah’ve never felt so relaxed neckin a bird before.
2019		Times Times2 3 June 3/1: Love Island: a handy glossary Neck on To make out with someone.

5. (US campus) to work very hard [? one’s neck is bent over the books].

1967–8

Baker et al. CUSS.