Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a quantity, usu. of a drink.

1933		M. Marshall Tramp-Royal on the Toby 104: I collected some bread and cheese and apple pudding along with a welcome neckful of lemonade.
1967		J. Olsen Black is Best 204: Behind the scenes, she was getting a neckful of the Islamic faith.

drinking.

1902

H. Baumann Londinismen (2nd edn).

alcohol, usu. beer.

1860		Hotten Dict. Modern Sl., Cant etc. (2nd edn) 179: neck-oil drink of any kind.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1880		C.H. Poole Attempt towards Gloss. Words Stafford 16/2: Neck-oil, ale. A word I once heard at Walsall .
1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 24 Apr. 4/7: A few courses of harmony and neck oil.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era 181/1: Neck oil (E. London). Beer generally.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 21 Feb. 10/4: Massa T. ought to leave the neck oil alone. Then he might be able to catcha gin .
1936		(con. 1900s) F. Richards Old Soldier Sahib (1965) 75: He inquired if we were fond of a drop of ‘neck-oil’, which like ‘purge’ was a nickname of beer.
1938		Williamstown Chron. (Vic.) 12 Nov. 3/4: Charlie turned up a good job with the Shell, and must reckon if there’s good money to be made in motor oil, there must be good money in neck oil.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 76: Youse and me were yarning away here over a few chilled tubes of neck oil.
1985		B. Humphries Traveller’s Tool 131: I’ve got a refreshing glass of neck-oil in one hand, a smoke on the go in the other.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 55: The term [oil] is relatd to the earlier use of oil for alcohol — and still current as throat-oil or neck-oil. At a time when alcohol was often adulterated, good oil meant the genuine full-strength brew.
2000		(con. 1940s–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.
2012		(con. 1943) G.S. Manson Coorparoo Blues [ebook] ‘I’ll stick to the neck oil, thanks’.

(UK black) fellatio.

2020

G. Krauze What They Was 45: [G]iving neckback in some dutty stairwell [ibid.] 171: Then [she] gave me neckback, sucking and tossing me off onto her big olive oil breasts.

a general insult aimed at socially unsophisticated adult males, typically still living at home and incapable of relationships.

2016

everydayfeminism.com 23 Feb. 🌐 Have you come across “neckbeard” as an insult? It’s popular in some corners of the internet – think of the common stereotype of a ‘fat loser living in his mom’s basement’.

(US black) fellatio.

2000

Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 neck bone Definition: oral copulation. Example: The bitch gave up a neck bone.

a hangman’s rope.

1788		‘De Night before Larry was Stretch’d’ Songs [publ. Monaghan] 5: Oghone! it’s all over said he, / For de neck cloth I’ll be forc’d to put on.
c.1816		‘The Night Before Larry Was Stretched’ in Farmer Musa Pedestris (1896) 79: For the neckcloth I don’t care a button.
1841		‘Night Before Larry Was Stretched’ in Dublin Comic Songster 185: [as cit. 1788].

a tavern pot-boy.

1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn).
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: neck stamper c. the Pot-Boy at a Tavern or Ale-house.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.

a judicial hanging.

1837

Morn. Post (London) 2 Sept. 3/2: ‘Aye, scragged!’ echoed John, ‘hung by the neck. [...] If you peach, it will be a neck train.’.

a Lat. verse recited as a means of escaping the gallows.

1465–71		Mankind line 620: Myscheff is a convicte for he coude hys neke verse [...] A lass he wyll hange.
a.1536		Tyndale Works 112: Yea set foorth a neckeuerse to saue all maner of trespassers, fro the feare of the sword [F&H].
1578		J. Whetstone Promos and Cassandra I IV iv: It behoues me to be secret, or else my neck verse cun.
1589		Nashe in Menaphon (1610) A2: Shifting companions [...] that could scarcely Latinize their neck verse if they should haue neede.
c.1592		Marlowe Jew of Malta IV ii: Within forty foot of the gallows, conning his neck-verse.
1605		J. Day Fair Maid of Bristow n.p.: No less then for his neck-verse will I touch him.
1633		Massinger Guardian IV ii: Have not your Instruments To tune, when you should strike up, but twang it perfectly, As you would read your Neck-verse.
1647		New Merry Letany 6: From our Neck-verse, and being burnt in the hand [...] Libera nos.
1655		Fuller Church Hist. of Britain n.p.: These words, ‘bread and cheese,’ were their neck-verse or shibboleth to distinguish them [F&H].
a.1661		‘The Rump Dockt’ Rump Poems and Songs (1662) II 45: Instead of Neck-verse / Shall have it writ on his herse, / Here hangs one of the King’s Tryers.
1675		Head Nugae Venales 72: He reserves the Neck-verse for himself knowing he shall have occasion for it.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Neck-verse, a Favor (formerly) indulged to the Clergy only but (now) to the laity also, to mitigate the Rigor of the Letter of the Law, as in Man-slaughter, &c.
1710		Old Songs in British Apollo n.p.: If a clerk had been taken For stealing of bacon, For burglary, murder or rape, If he could but rehearse (Well prompt) his neck-verse, He never could fail to escape [F&H].
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1734		C. Johnson Hist. of Highwaymen &c. 444: Vilet, being try’d at the Assizes at Oxford [...] being put to read his Neck Verse.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1804		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt II Vol. I Bk II 419: The time was when learning would save a man’s neck; but now it endangers it. The neck verse is reversed.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1827		Morn. Chron. (London) 29 Oct. 3/2: [D]ragging in that ‘neck-verse’ [...] the song he sings before he supposes he is about to be executed.
1836		Devizes & Wilts Gaz. 7 Apr. 4/3: By an old law of clergy a woman might suffer death for an offense, whilst her maler associate in guilt saved his life by reading the miserable neck-verse.
1843		Morn. Post (London) 27 July 3/5: [The] old man look round with an expression, hafl-fear and half-blaney, and [...] calls out, in the tremulous tone of a felon essaying to sing his neck-verse on the scaffold.
1859		Chester Chron. 19 Mar. 8/5: Theree was a more than usual knot of these wiseacres, from the egregious Doctor of Philosophy (who would be hard put to it to utter his neck-verse understandingly) to [etc.].
1865		Stirling Obs. 12 Oct. 5/3: A ride of a mile and a half brought us from Gallows Hill (where many a ‘neck verse’ has been sung) to Keir Mains.
1878		(ref. to 16C) Leicester Chron 21 Dec. 9/6: Bu his ability to read a particular verse in the Bible — popularly known as a ‘neck verse’ — the criminal was enabled to ‘claim the benefit of clergy’ and thus saved his neck.
1888		Sheffield Eve. Teleg. 29 Sept. 4/4: The authentic ‘Neck Verse’ used at Newgate is, however, extant.
1900		Morn. Post (London) 21 Aug. 5/7: Nobody loots the Boers, or, if he does so, he had better bethink him of a hand lie as his ‘neck-verse’.
1906		Hull Dly Mail 29 Jan. 2/7: The first verse of the fifty-first Psalm is called the ‘Neck Verse’ for the reason that in former times a man condemned to death was sometimes given a chance to save his life by proving that he could read and this verse was used as a test.
1928		Western Dly Press 4 Apr. 5/5: Jonson ‘pleaded his clergy and read his neck-verse! [...] thereby saving his neck.
1950		Cornishman 30 Nov. 6/3: Punishment consisted of the reading of verse one of the 51st psalm, always called the ‘neck verse’.

1. hemp, the basic constituent of the rope used for the gallows.

1562		W. Bullein Bk of Simples fol. 27: Here is an herbe whiche light fellowes, merily will call Gallowgrasse, Neckeweede, or the Tristrams knot, or Saynt Andres lace, or a bastarde brothers badge, with a difference on the left side etc., you know my meaning.
1578		H. Lyte (trans.) R. Dodoens Historie of Plantes 72: Hempe is called in... English, necke-weede, and Gallows grasse [F&H].
1620		J. Taylor ‘Praise of Hemp-Seed’ in Works (1869) III 68: Some call it Neck-weed, for it hath a tricke / To cure the necke that’s troubled with the crick.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Neck Weed, Hemp.
1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd, 3rd edn).
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1830		Freeman’s Jrnl 10 Apr. 2/3: But what have I / Or you to do with ropes or neckweed here.
1857		Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 23 May 2/1: ‘Sixpen’orth of neckweed’ means a halter.
1859		Matsell Vocabulum.
1871		Devizes & Wilts Gaz. 19 Oct. 4/4: Thus hemp from its use in providing the halter, is in some books called gallows-grass, while others call it neck-weed.
1881		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: Hemp is denominated ‘neck-weed’.
1922		Aberdeen Jrnl 29 Dec. 5/7: There are humorous nicknames, like neck-weed for hemp, which yields the rope that hangs malefactors.

2. the hangman’s rope itself.

1949

Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

to make a special effort.

1907		C. Fowler letter 29 Oct. in Tomlinson Rocky Mountain Sailor (1998) 388: Quarterly returns mailed a day late and registry receipts dated back. Am taking a breathing spell instead of breaking my neck trying to get ‘up to date’ and systematized, as I should.
1917		C. Charles letter 26 July in Rockwell American Fighters in the Foreign Legion 270: Every one of the boys is going to break his neck in the next fight and show old Pop [i.e. President] Wilson that we have no yellow streak in us.
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 158: Why should he break his neck to get home on schedule?
1951		J.D. Salinger Catcher in the Rye (1958) 112: I didn’t break my neck looking for him, naturally, the bastard.
1958		(con. 1950) E. Frankel Band of Brothers 245: Herding a bunch of tourists around [...] breaking your neck to get a cut from the souvenir stores.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 302: There ain’t nothin’ serious goin’ on here tonight. So don’t break your neck gettin’ back.

to yearn for, to be desperate for.

1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 9 July 36/2: Yer might have bought clobber fer that big gaol-bird that yer used ter be breakin’ yer neck after, in Elizabeth-street, but y’ never gave me any. A pretty article she was ter spend yer silver on, I must say!
1937		J. Curtis There Ain’t No Justice 69: That crook of a guv’nor’ll be here in a minute, breaking his neck to sign you up for a series of fights in his hall. Tell him its ixnay.

(US) to get married.

1965–70

in DARE.

to commence, to set events in motions.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

see under dead adj.

to consume food or drink.

1902		A.N. Lyons Hookey 3: A glass of ginger-ale which my young friend had pressed on me. ‘Get that down your neck,’ she said.
1909		J. Ware Passing Eng. of the Victorian Era.
1983		J. Sullivan ‘Wanted’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Here you are. Get that down your neck.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘Hole in One’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Here you are, come on, get that down your neck, a small rum.

see separate entry.

(US) to become nervous.

1939

R. Chandler Big Sleep 95: I was wondering what it was all about and getting my neck wet.

(Aus.) to defeat or outwit someone.

1939		Truth (Sydney) 26 Nov. 14/6: The husband [...] said that Witt was ‘getting under his neck,’ and in an attempt to drive him out of Albury used to meet him a couple of times a week and give him a hiding.
1940		Townsville Dly Bulletin (Qld) 24 May 9/3: The prisoner told him that Tom Wallis had got under his neck for his girl. Paterson seemed to be worried over it.
1947		Morn. Bulletin (Rockhampton, Qld) 22 Mar. 5/3: In the early jockeyings for position Bruce Pie seems to have been too nippy for Premier Hanlon, in that he got under his neck for the City Hall.
1952		Truth (Sydney) 30 Mar. 5/5: While city man was negotiating the purchase of a posh sea-side home, which he rented, a regular week end guest got under his neck and landed the property.
1953		Baker Aus. Speaks.

(Aus.) to take someone else’s prerogative, to steal someone’s idea, to stop someone else’s intended actions.

1953		T.A.G. Hungerford Riverslake 220: You just race in the mob from the office and go under our necks.
1961		M. Calthorpe Dyehouse 120: She knew she was going under Patty What’s-her-name’s neck. We can’t shed tears of blood over these dames.
1982		NT News (Darwin) 7 Dec. 7: Bob-a-job Boy Scouts in England have got under the neck of the Pommie Post Office by starting a cheap Christmas card delivery service [GAW4].
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 27: Go under (someone’s) neck: To take unfair advantage thus, ‘I thought I had the job but the bloody bastard went under me neck.’.

to have a drink.

1852

Kendal Mercury 17 Apr. 6/1: The journeyman then proposes that he and his friend moisten their necks with a drop of gin.

to stand, to exhibit moral courage.

1889–90

Barrère & Leland Dict. of Sl., Jargon and Cant II 83/2: Not to be able to neck it, not to have the moral courage to do or ask.

head over heels.

1890

‘’Arry on the Sincerest Form of Flattery’ in Punch 20 Sept. 144/2: They’ll be arter you, nick over nozzle, the smuggers of notions and nips.

1. (black) a weakling, a coward.

1989		J. Morton Lowspeak 105: No neck – an idiot.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 81: [T]he other dipshits on the faculty, the no-necks [...] the fuckwads and the pushovers.

2. a thug.

2024

J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 522: He had a team of security primates... a private militia, tawdry no-necks.

see on one’s ear under ear n.¹

pressurizing or persecuting someone.

1917		F. Packard Adventures of Jimmie Dale (1918) I ix: By de time youse gets five feet from de door of dis room we has de whole works on yer neck.
1940		F.S. Fitzgerald ‘Pat Hobby’s Christmas Wish’ in Pat Hobby Stories (1967) 29: The boss is on my neck [...] I’ve got to have a finished script Thursday.
1953		W.P. McGivern Big Heat 110: He was on our neck fast enough on that job Big Burrows did.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 55: If you go back to the precinct, Lieutenant, Chalmers will be on your neck in a minute.
1971		Wodehouse Much Obliged, Jeeves 158: How am I to restore the porringer [...] before the constabulary come piling on the back of my neck?

(US) to mind one’s own business.

1918		H. Simon ‘Prison Dict.’ in AS VIII:3 (1933) 30/2: PULL IN YER NECK—YER EARS,—YER BARBER POLE, etc. Shut up! Twelve-double-o-three shouts, ‘Hey, Forty!’ to a fellow in a cell down the line. Forty answers, ‘What?’ Three yells back, ‘Pull in yer neck!’ and everybody on the tier laughs.
1920		A. Baer Putting ’Em Over 30 May [synd. col.] Pull In Yer Neck, They’re Looking for Boll Weevils.
1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 304: ‘Lay off that,’ said Red O’Leary, ‘or I’ll knock you off.’ ‘Pull in your neck,’ said Jack Counihan.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 164: pull your head/neck in Mind your own business. ‘Pull your woolly head in — the woodpeckers are flying low,’ was the advice to Kiwi troops in Korea. ANZ c.1930.

see wash one’s neck under wash v.

(US prison) to be quiet, esp. as an imper.

2000

Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Rest Your Neck: Be quiet, as in ‘Lay down and rest your neck.’Also, ‘Bite your pillow.’.

(Aus.) to have a drink.

1889

Dead Bird (Sydney) 16 Nov. 2/2: [He] called for a whisky and soda, rinsed his neck, nodded to the barmaid to put it on the slate, and left.

see shut one’s head under head n.

(orig. US campus) to exceed one’s brief, to interfere in affairs in which one is not directly concerned and often, having stuck out one’s neck, fig. to have one’s head cut off.

1929		Phila. Inquirer 16 June n.p.: To ‘stick out one’s neck’ is to commit an unpardonable error, to lay one’s self open to criticism, usually that of being ‘wet.’.
1936		R. Chandler ‘Goldfish’ in Red Wind (1946) 187: You sure stick your neck out all the time, don’t you?
1936		N.Y. Times 12 Nov. 42: ‘If the leaders and owners of the American System are too lazy to wash their dirty dishes, too selfish to be intelligent, too timid to stick their necks out in defense of free enterprise and constitutional government, who will defend it?’ he asked.
1940		W.R. Burnett High Sierra in Four Novels (1984) 348: Roy, I’ll give it to you straight. You’re just putting your neck out.
1946		K. Fearing Big Clock (2002) 71: Why should you do this? Why do you stick your neck out?
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 35: Completely overlooking, poor fathead, that [...] he will be sticking his neck out.
1951		D. Stivens Jimmy Brockett 234: I couldn’t give Pat a chance to have a go at me. It wasn’t likely, by hang, that he would, at such a time, but there was no point in poking my neck out.
1951		M. Spillane One Lonely Night 48: I stuck my neck out when I invited you in.
1957		R. Prather Always Leave ’Em Dying 98: It’s bad enough that I’m here, sticking your neck out.
1965		R.L. Pike Mute Witness (1997) 45: Jeez, Lieutenant! You’re sticking your neck out a mile.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Pimp 94: I gotta’ love your stinking junkie ass to stick my neck out like that.
1972		P. Fordham Inside the Und. 168: Who’s going to stick his neck out when there’s a Squad car outside.
1979		T. Rhone Old Story Time II vi: Why am I sticking my neck out for you?
1980		J. McClure Spike Island (1981) 456: ‘I still administer a clip round the ear,’ admits an officer of the old school, ‘and I stick my neck out.’.
1999		Observer 18 July 27: Roy was the ‘only Indian writer with the guts to stick her neck out’.
2000		Guardian Guide 8–14 Jan. 12: I stuck my neck out for you [...] I slept with a rapist!
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 48: If there’s one thing I agreed with fucking Gerrard over, it was never to stick your neck out.

see swallow one’s spit under swallow v.

1. to talk nonsense.

1957		Mad mag. Sept.–Oct. 10: For years I been talking outta the side o’ my face [...] Now I kin talk outta the front of me neck!
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 39: Anybody can talk out of the side of his neck.
1980		E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 101: Talking out of the side of one’s neck suggest[s] that words lie.
1992		R.C. Cruz Straight Outta Compton [title page] A dive into living large, a work where characters trip, talk out the side of their neck and cuss like it was nothing.
2002		‘Touré’ Portable Promised Land (ms.) 159: We Words (My Favorite Things) [...] Get off my dick. Talkin out your neck. Talkin all that jazz.

2. to talk surreptitiously to ensure that one’s conversation remains unheard by eavesdroppers.

1983		R. Klein Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1999		‘Master Pimp’ Pimp’s Rap 3: They ere dressed down in leather and were talking slick out the side of their necks.

3. (US prison, also come out of the side of one’s neck) to talk disrespectfully.

2002

(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 34: ‘Fine?’ Skell looks like i just slapped him in the face. ‘You talkin’ outta the side of your neck, dawg?’ [Ibid.] 47: Nobody comes outta the side of their neck at me! Specially not no fuckin’ fish!

to talk nonsense, to talk rubbish.

1899		E.W. Hornung Amateur Cracksman (1992) 104: ‘Don’t talk through yer neck,’ snarled the convict. ‘Talk out straight, curse you!’.
1901		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Oct. 16/3: ‘W.S.T.’ [...] talks through his neck about up-to-date sheep-dogs working like gymnasts. A show worker never does anything like that.
1911		L. Stone Jonah 62: ‘Yer talkin’ through yer neck,’ cried Jonah, losing his temper.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Dec. 16/1: There are many Maori proverbs which have not yet seen the light of print. Some of Henare’s sayings are very subtle, and, in some cases are synonomous with the shearer’s ‘backchat.’ F’rinstance, ‘The man’s talk is from the back of his head,‘ was a common saying of many generations of brown brethren.
1913		A. Lunn Harrovians 68: What is the good of writing stuff like this? He must know he’s shouting through his fat neck.
1924		‘Sapper’ Third Round 589: Either the maid is talking through the back of her neck, or she isn’t.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 847: I can’t say if the old boy is talking out of the back of his neck or not.
1934		Wodehouse Right Ho, Jeeves 76: You consider me to be talking through the back of my neck.
1954		Wodehouse Jeeves and the Feudal Spirit 179: How mistaken I had been in supposing that he had been talking through the back of his neck.
1959		W. Hall Long and the Short and the Tall Act II: It seems to me you’re talking out of the back of your head.
2000		P. Beatty Tuff 180: I was talking out of the back of my neck and said some shit without really thinking.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 207: talk through a hole in the back of your neck Talking nonsense. ANZ.

(Aus.) to talk in an aristocratic manner.

1905

Bulletin (Sydney) 27 July 36/2: S’welp me, I near passed ’im one in th’ eye – talkin’ to me like so – but ’e wuz so little an’ pink an’ talked through the top of ’is neck so pretty that I ’eld off.

to be quiet, stop talking; to modify one’s behaviour.

1980		T. McClenaghan Submariners II i: Stop manking you two. Wind your necks in.
2007		S. Low Boys from Baghdad 165: Winding my neck in, I saw the human side of it and the obvious worry this man was experiencing .
2017		J.R. Lawrence My Camp 216: The captain started off by shouting at him [and] escalated to physical assault. [...] Fortunately for everyone, on the second day of shooting we had a journalist turn up and the captain had to wind his neck in .
2017		L. McInerney Blood Miracles 70: ‘Fucking wind your neck in’.
2021		L. McInerney Rules of Revelation 154: ‘She can’t stay here, where’ll Dad put her?’ ‘My old bed? It’s all sorted, so wind your neck in’.

(Irish) an excl. of surprise or disbelief.

1919		Beston Full Speed Ahead 104: ‘Hatteras, my neck!’ said the other.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 116: That me neck! Kelly would cry.
1942		(con. 1890s) S. O’Casey Pictures in the Hallway 219: Cancer, me neck! he exploded as he disappeared.