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Neck   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" Quotes from Famous Books



... played at boxing and leaping. After they had enjoyed looking at the games, Laodamas, a son of Alkinoos, said to his friends: "Let us ask the stranger to take part in the games. His strong arms and legs and powerful neck show that he is no weakling. Nor has he lost his youthful vigor after all his hardships, although nothing tires a man so much as being tossed about on ...
— Odysseus, the Hero of Ithaca - Adapted from the Third Book of the Primary Schools of Athens, Greece • Homer

... longer restrain himself. He fell on the neck of his new-found mother and embraced her tenderly. Then he greeted his brothers and sisters heartily. The ecstacy of moments like ...
— After Long Years and Other Stories • Translated from the German by Sophie A. Miller and Agnes M. Dunne

... ingredients generally used in this mixture are apples, dried fruits, sugar, molasses, cider, and chopped beef and suet. Other fruits, such as quinces, oranges, and citron, and various spices are also often used for flavoring. The cheaper cuts of meat, such as the neck, shoulder, brisket, etc., are suitable for this purpose, because the meat is ground so fine in making the mince meat that the fact that it was at all tough can be very readily concealed. Such expensive material as citron ...
— Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 4 • Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences

... ae single k-not roon' her neck, an' twa three o' ye tak' a haud at ilka en', and pu' ...
— Alec Forbes of Howglen • George MacDonald

... horror. The shock of this cold statement was like another blow on the head. He wanted to leap forward and set strangling fingers about the neck of Naka Machi. Ordinarily Naka Machi could handle him with ease, but now that Bentley had heard the plan of Barter, he could have handled the Japanese with superhuman strength. But he could not move. ...
— The Mind Master • Arthur J. Burks

... to Sue. As I came into the living room she met me suddenly at the door. In a moment her arms were about my neck ...
— The Harbor • Ernest Poole

... Carker of "Dombey and Son" is ground to death under the wheels of a locomotive at a French railway station; Quilp, of "The Old Curiosity Shop," is dramatically drowned; Bill Sykes' neck is broken by the rope meant for his escape; Bradley Headstone and his enemy go together to the bottom of the canal; while the mysterious Krook, of "Bleak House" is ...
— Dickens' London • Francis Miltoun

... and she pretends she cannot look at these officers' bare legs, although she will look at my husband's bare thighs for hours together; she must think of other things, or she would see no more shame in a man showing his legs, than she does in showing her neck and breast.' These remarks turned the laugh against the lady's squeamish delicacy, and the ball was permitted to proceed without the ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean

... glorious state of Jesus Christ, whom he therefore called the champions of God. He was condemned by the Parliament of Paris, and after having done penance, dressed in his shirt, with a rope round his neck and a torch in his hand, before the entrance of Notre Dame, he was burnt with his book and writings, his ashes being subsequently cast into the air. Morin had several followers who shared his fantastic views, and these poor "champions of God" were condemned to witness the execution of their leader, ...
— Books Fatal to Their Authors • P. H. Ditchfield

... usually four in number, one being sewn on the back and another on the front of the vestment just above the lower hem, and one on each cuff. When, as occasionally happened, a fifth was added, this was placed on the breast just below the neck opening. These "apparelled albs'' (albae paratae) continued in general use in the Western Church till the 16th century, when a tendency to dispense with the parures began, Rome itself setting the ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia

... instructions with the Salve Regina; he never undertook any thing but under her protection; and in all dangers, he had always recourse to the blessed Virgin as his patroness. For the rest, to shew that he depended on her, and made his glory of that dependence, he commonly wore a chaplet about his neck, to the end that Christians might take delight in seeing the chaplet; and made frequent use of it in the operation of ...
— The Works of John Dryden, Volume XVI. (of 18) - The Life of St. Francis Xavier • John Dryden

... "Lady" was getting on in years, but still had some spirit left in her, and she was accustomed to the saddle. Her owner, considering that she needed a rest, was glad to hire her out for such light work. Diana flung her arms round the pony's neck, and at once began the process of making love to her, cementing the new friendship with several lumps of sugar which she had ...
— A harum-scarum schoolgirl • Angela Brazil

... coming on, compelled by the Indians to act as rowers. As the boats passed the fort, whoops of derision, wild war chants, eldritch screams, rose from the Indians. One desperate white captive rose like a flash from his place at the rowlocks, caught his Indian captor by the scuff of the neck and threw him into the river; but the redskin grappled the other in a grip of death. Turning over and over, locked in each other's arms, the hate of the inferno in their faces, soldier and Indian swept down to ...
— Canada: the Empire of the North - Being the Romantic Story of the New Dominion's Growth from Colony to Kingdom • Agnes C. Laut

... down his leg. Two other bullets had hit him, one in the flank, the other in the loins, leaving two small red holes. The noble animal had brought me back safely, and then, as he stood still on his four trembling legs, his neck raised, his nostrils dilated, his ears pricked, he fixed his eyes on the distance and seemed to look approaching death in the face. Poor 'Tourne-Toujours,' you could not divine the pain I felt as I patted you, as gently as I should touch ...
— In the Field (1914-1915) - The Impressions of an Officer of Light Cavalry • Marcel Dupont

... with pipes and coffee-pots, were dragging boxes and feather beds; they scuttled off as best they could. But we quietly took counsel together: 'To horse! Let us harass the retreat of the Germans; now we will give it to the landraths in the neck, cut chops from the hofraths, and catch the herr officers by the cues.' And now General Dombrowski entered the district of Posen and brought the orders of the Emperor to stir up an insurrection! In one week our people so whipped and banished the Prussians that you couldn't ...
— Pan Tadeusz • Adam Mickiewicz

... his wife's name, and she remembered her sacred charge, the faithful creature suddenly fell on his neck ...
— Not Like Other Girls • Rosa N. Carey

... fire of toasts, the clatter of china and silver, and the laughter of the guests. She sat very still, eating and drinking, because she must eat and drink to avoid notice, and never thinking how beautiful she looked in her blue silk dress, her neck and arms gleaming like ivory against azure. What would it ever matter ...
— Kate Danton, or, Captain Danton's Daughters - A Novel • May Agnes Fleming

... compared to the wireless it's like a candle beside an electric light. Mr. Marlin was right when he said the fellows couldn't be listening in for me all the time, but you just bet I'm going to figure out some way to use my wireless. Why, I've got to, if I'm going to make good. This whole neck of the woods could burn up while I'm hiking twelve miles to call help and twelve more to get back to the blaze. And I reckon I'd feel like putting up a stiff fight after hiking twenty-four miles over these mountains. Mr. Marlin is all right, but he isn't quite up to date. He still thinks the wireless ...
— The Young Wireless Operator—As a Fire Patrol - The Story of a Young Wireless Amateur Who Made Good as a Fire Patrol • Lewis E. Theiss

... the material around the injured feet, and making it fast about the fetlocks, they allowed it to dry on. In the morning, thus protected, the horse could journey on. It is customary regularly to shoe these ponies only on the fore feet, as the weight of the animal's head and neck, together with that of the rider, comes harder on these hoofs and causes them, when traveling over sharp rocks, to wear away quickly. It seldom happens that the hind feet become tender. The Indians cannot understand the policy of this, and one ...
— The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, the Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, from Facts Narrated by Himself • De Witt C. Peters

... O those days of blood!" She shuddered violently. "Baptism or death! But they were strong. I see a Cossack dragging my mother along with a thong round her neck. 'Here's a red ribbon for you, dear,' he cries with laughter; they betrayed us to the Cossacks, those Greek Christians within our gates—the Zaporogians dressed themselves like Poles—we open the gates—the gutters run blood—oh, the agonies ...
— Dreamers of the Ghetto • I. Zangwill

... looked like a huge lizard, about four feet in length, including its long tail. The tree not being a large one, we shook it, when down came the creature to the ground. In spite of its rather formidable appearance, Tim dashed boldly forward and caught it by the neck and the small of the back, and held it fast. It lashed about very fiercely with its tail, its only weapon of defence, as its teeth, though numerous, were small. Uncle Paul having formed a noose, slipped it over the creature's head ...
— The Wanderers - Adventures in the Wilds of Trinidad and Orinoco • W.H.G. Kingston

... on the sainte scapulaire, or, holy scapulary. This is a small band of cloth or silk, formed and wrought in a peculiar manner, to be tied around the neck by two strings, fastened to the ends. I have made many of them, having been sometimes set to make them in the Convent. On one side is worked a kind of double cross, (thus, XX) and on the other I. II. S., the meaning of which I do not exactly know. Such a ...
— Awful Disclosures - Containing, Also, Many Incidents Never before Published • Maria Monk

... pounds lamb, cut from neck or shoulder. Cut into pieces two inches square. Melt one-fourth cup dripping, add meat and stir and brown evenly. Add two onions, thinly sliced, one sprig parsley, small bit bay leaf, two cloves and ...
— Stevenson Memorial Cook Book • Various

... and his red tongue lolled, and surest sign of all, the bushy tail drooped; yet it was time to make a new call upon both wolf-dog and horse, for the posse was racing after him as before, giving even the fresh, willing mounts the urge of spurs and quirts. He ran his hand down the dripping neck and shoulder of Satan; he called to him; and with a snort the stallion responded. He felt the quiver as the muscles tightened for the work; he felt the settling as ...
— The Seventh Man • Max Brand

... who told me that these sabots were to be worn. The miserable things nearly madame break my neck when I entered the carriage; but they are something new. They attract attention. Everybody says, What are they? And when one has pretty feet, not too large, you know," ...
— Serge Panine • Georges Ohnet

... a sleeping apartment. The famous Sohong {FN6-1} Swami was seated on his bed. The sight of his tremendous body affected us strangely. With bulging eyes, we stood speechless. We had never before seen such a chest or such football-like biceps. On an immense neck, the swami's fierce yet calm face was adorned with flowing locks, beard and moustache. A hint of dovelike and tigerlike qualities shone in his dark eyes. He was unclothed, save for a tiger skin about his ...
— Autobiography of a YOGI • Paramhansa Yogananda

... to adulterate the beautiful and pure Attic Greek language, gave me the exceptional privilege to study all the works of the political machinery in Greece. I have seen the drama enacted behind the scenes. It is a dreadful drama that could break the neck of the strongest long-suffering. The awful drama that is enacted in Greece at the expenses of the people is a long, very long story; perhaps it has its beginning with the reign of King George and Queen Olga, I will not say, but the people of Greece, ...
— Conversion of a High Priest into a Christian Worker • Meletios Golden

... all-glorious, of course. She certainly looked like an old vulture, in a pelisse of gray velvet, with a chinchilla boa round her long, bare neck, and her big beak, with marabouts overshadowing it, of the same color. Monsieur de Talbrun —well! Monsieur de Talbrun was very bald, as bald as he could be. To make up for the want of hair on ...
— Jacqueline, Complete • (Mme. Blanc) Th. Bentzon

... watching him, with her gaze rooted to that dark countenance and bare head, on which the iron-grey hair waved thick and strong, for Fareham had never consented to envelop his neck and shoulders in a mantle of dead men's tresses, and wore his own hair after the fashion of Charles the First's time. So intent was her watch, that the objects on either shore passed her like shadows in a dream. The Primate's ...
— London Pride - Or When the World Was Younger • M. E. Braddon

... in the glow of firelight and wax candles in the luxurious drawing-room; the amber damask cushions of the sofa contrasting with her dark violet velvet dress, and her rippling hair falling about her neck in a golden haze. Everywhere around her were the evidences of wealth and splendor; while in strange contrast to all this, and to her own beauty; the awkward groom stood rubbing his bullet head as my lady explained ...
— Lady Audley's Secret • Mary Elizabeth Braddon

... it, I bivouacqued, for the day was very hot; the thermometer, at 3 P.M., 90 deg. in the shade. The pond here was much frequented by pigeons, and a new sort of elegant form and plumage, was so numerous that five were killed at two shots. The head was jet-black, the neck milkwhite, the wings fawn-colour, having lower feathers of purple. I had no means of preserving a specimen, but I took a drawing of one.[*] Height above the ...
— Journal of an Expedition into the Interior of Tropical Australia • Thomas Mitchell

... window overlooking Wisconsin Avenue. No Key Bridge was to be seen in the distance, only stretches of fields and orchards, scattered with occasional houses of russet brick, and when he craned his neck there was the inn where the People's Drugstore ought to be, the sign swinging ...
— Mr. Wicker's Window • Carley Dawson

... Here, underneath this little Rosie bush, Thy crimson cheekes peers forth more faire then it; Here Cupid (hanging downe his wings) doth sit, Comparing Cherries to thy Ruby lippes: Here is thy browe, thy haire, thy neck, thy hand, Of purpose all in severall shrowds disper'st, Least ravisht I should dote on mine own worke Or ...
— A Collection of Old English Plays, Vol. III • Various

... pocket of my ragged coat I had a small loaded pistol with two barrels. One of those barrels would kill Dingaan—at five paces I could not miss that bulk—and the other would blow out my brains, for I was not minded to have my neck twisted or to be beaten to death with sticks. Well, if it was to be done, I had better do it at once. Already my hand was creeping towards the pocket when a new idea, or rather two ideas, ...
— Marie - An Episode in The Life of the late Allan Quatermain • H. Rider Haggard

... northern slopes of the Hindu Kush, it is only separated by the length of these slopes (some 8 or 10 m.) from the southern boundary along the crest. Thus Badakshan reaches out an arm into the Pamirs eastwards—bottle-shaped—narrow at the neck (represented by the northern slopes of the Hindu Kush), and swelling out eastwards so as to include a part of the great and little Pamirs. Before the boundary settlement of 1873 the small states of Roshan and Shignan extended to the left bank of the Oxus, and the province of Darwaz, on the other ...
— Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 2 - "Baconthorpe" to "Bankruptcy" • Various

... Richmond girl, 'regular screamer,' he says. It will last the allotted time, of course—six weeks was the limit for the last two, you'll remember. Smythe put it all over Little in the tennis tournament, and 'Pud' Lester won the golf championship. Terry's horse, Peach Blossom, fell and broke its neck in the high jump, at the Horse Show; Terry came out easier—he broke only his collar-bone. Mattison is the little bounder he always was—a month hasn't changed him—except for the worse. Hungerford is a bit sillier. Colloden is the same bully fellow; he ...
— In Her Own Right • John Reed Scott

... condemned and does condemn the said d'Aubray de Brinvilliers to make the rightful atonement before the great gate of the church of Paris, whither she shall be conveyed in a tumbril, barefoot, a rope on her neck, holding in her hands a burning torch two pounds in weight; and there on her knees she shall say and declare that maliciously, with desire for revenge and seeking their goods, she did poison her father, cause to be poisoned ...
— CELEBRATED CRIMES, COMPLETE - THE MARQUISE DE BRINVILLIERS • ALEXANDRE DUMAS, PERE

... the Arabs, the Khazars of the Caucasian region, and the Romans. According to some writers, after leaving Ctesiphon, with his wives and children, his two uncles, and an escort of thirty men, he laid his reins on his horse's neck, and left it to the instinct of the animal to determine in what direction he should flee. The sagacious beast took the way to the Euphrates; and Chosroes, finding himself on its banks, crossed the river, and, ...
— The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 7. (of 7): The Sassanian or New Persian Empire • George Rawlinson

... you here? Have a manuscript?" He waved an abstracted hand round him. "You'll find a chair somewhere." A claret bottle stood on the floor beside him. He took it by the neck ...
— The Inheritors • Joseph Conrad

... SOCKET JOINTS.—The most practical form of ball and socket joints is simply a head in which is a bowl-shaped cavity the depth of one-half of the ball. A plate with a central opening small enough to hold in the ball, and still large enough at the neck to permit the arm carrying the ball to swing a limited distance, is secured by threads, or by bolts, to the head. The first figure ...
— Practical Mechanics for Boys • J. S. Zerbe

... to the village, was duly shaved, and went on to the post-office. Mrs. Crocker rotund and rosy came out and handed him as he sat in the saddle a sheaf of letters. "Yes, Mrs. Penhallow is better, thank you." As he rode away the reins on Dixy's neck, he read his letters and stuffed them in his pocket until he came to one, over which he ...
— Westways • S. Weir Mitchell

... just guess we will!" and Dotty Rose seized Blot by the scruff of his black neck and shook him loose from ...
— Two Little Women • Carolyn Wells

... here in America more and more the ideal of the well-trained and vigorous body will be maintained neck by neck with that of the well-trained and vigorous mind as the two coequal halves of the higher education for men and women alike. The strength of the British Empire lies in the strength of character of the individual Englishman, taken all alone by himself. And that strength, ...
— Talks To Teachers On Psychology; And To Students On Some Of Life's Ideals • William James

... and cautious, sudden motion causes grunting, the attitude is constrained, the feet are drawn somewhat together, the back is arched, the face has an anxious expression. If the disease is of several days' standing, there is likely to be soft swelling (edema) beneath the neck, in the dewlap, and under the chest, between the fore legs. Breathing is short and difficult; it may clearly be painful. The pulse is rapid, 80 to 120 per minute. The muscles quiver as though the animal were cold. Rumination ...
— Special Report on Diseases of Cattle • U.S. Department of Agriculture

... squarely and justly met upon the uncompromising basis of right. The Negro is a human being with clearly demonstrated capabilities, and it can not be that the world's foremost nation will need to further climb the ladder of fame by keeping the foot of the strong upon the neck of the weak. ...
— Twentieth Century Negro Literature - Or, A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating - to the American Negro • Various

... his horse, and, armed with his lance, rushed to encounter the dragon, whom he reached just as the monster was about to devour the royal virgin. And when St. George had overthrown the dragon, the king's daughter fastened her girdle round the beast's neck and he followed her like a ...
— Penguin Island • Anatole France

... practises virtue. Virtue assumes the form of a Chandal and accompanied by an attendant, makes his appearance, with a half-burnt bamboo on his shoulders and a chain of skeletons round his neck. He is ready to buy the king, who now weeps bitterly, and holding the feet of the sage, ...
— Tales from the Hindu Dramatists • R. N. Dutta

... and so help me I'll kill you." Jason shuffled backwards faster now until his legs hit the lower edge of the hatch. He clambered into it and burst out laughing at the dumfounded expressions of his friends' faces. The laugh died as something pricked the back of his neck. The pressure of the gun was gone and he swung around, surprised to see the floor rushing up towards him, but before ...
— The Ethical Engineer • Henry Maxwell Dempsey

... only secure harbour; and when, in a bright evening gleam of the setting sun from beneath the clouds, Veronique came in sight of her Lady, the Queen's favourite, it was to see her leading by a string a little shaggy cow, with a bell round its neck, her gray cloak huddled round her, though dank with wet, a long lock of black hair streaming over her brow, her garments clinging with damp, her bare ankles scratched with thorns, her heavy SABOTS covered with mire, her cheeks ...
— The Chaplet of Pearls • Charlotte M. Yonge

... the dwelling opened, and two persons appeared upon the sill; one, a man advanced in life, the other, a pale and serious woman. Each carried a small package and seemed ready for travel. Lenora was dressed in a simple dark gown and bonnet, her neck covered by a small square handkerchief. De Vlierbeck was buttoned up to the chin in a coarse black greatcoat, and wore a threadbare cap whose large visor nearly masked his features. Although it was evident ...
— The Poor Gentleman • Hendrik Conscience

... he snapped, his moustache bristling. "Why, what could you do to stop me? I could break your neck with one hand. So you imagine someone is going to save you. Well, who will it be? Those yokels down at the Landing? Haines, the lawyer? You have a surprise up your sleeve for me, I suppose! Hell! it makes me ...
— The Devil's Own - A Romance of the Black Hawk War • Randall Parrish

... the neck are considered as necessary appendages to the academic dress, particularly on all public occasions."—Guide ...
— A Collection of College Words and Customs • Benjamin Homer Hall

... sister's remarks, came out and kissed her affectionately; then, sitting upon her mother's lap, she lovingly entwined her right arm round her neck, while she caressed and smoothed her hair with her left ...
— From Wealth to Poverty • Austin Potter

... sympathy of the crowd. In her new clothes Bessie looked enough like a city girl to pass for one easily, while Farmer Weeks wore old-fashioned clothes of rusty black, a slouch hat, and a colored handkerchief knotted about his neck in place of a scarf. He carried an old-fashioned cotton umbrella; too, a huge affair—a regular "bumbleshoot," and he was ...
— The Camp Fire Girls on the Farm - Or, Bessie King's New Chum • Jane L. Stewart

... a flash the girl bent, and catching up a long streamer of damp kelp tossed it about his neck, retaining her hold on ...
— Where the Sun Swings North • Barrett Willoughby

... could get out of her way she flung her arms round the horrified young man's neck and em-braced him copiously. Over her bony left shoulder the frantic Richard met the ecstatic gaze of Miss Truefitt, and, in a flash, he realised the trap ...
— Odd Craft, Complete • W.W. Jacobs

... queerly amongst the familiar purely egotistical and materialistic things of boyhood and girlhood. We were like misguided travelers who had camped in the dry bed of a tropical river. Presently we were knee deep and neck deep in the flood. Our beings were suddenly going out from ourselves seeking other beings—we knew not why. This novel craving for abandonment to some one of the other sex, bore us away. We were ashamed and full of desire. We kept the thing a guilty secret, and were ...
— In the Days of the Comet • H. G. Wells

... a state toilet. "He looks half like an actor and half like a clergyman, and he IS all a politician," thought Mrs. Carriswood; "I don't think I shall like him any more." While she thought, she was inclining her slender neck toward him, and the gentlest interest and pleasure beamed out ...
— Stories of a Western Town • Octave Thanet

... dealer's awkward string, With neck in rope and tail in knot,— Rough colts, with careless country-swing, In lazy ...
— The Poetical Works of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Complete • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

... posterity will be from Charles II. and all the princes in Europe from James I. I am the first antiquary of my race. People don't know how entertaining a study it is. Who begot whom is a most amusing kind of hunting; one recovers a grandfather instead of breaking one's own neck—and then one grows so pious to the memory of a thousand persons one never heard of before. One finds how Christian names came into a family, with a world of other delectable erudition. You cannot imagine how vexed I was that Bloomfield(211) died before he arrived at Houghton—I had promised myself ...
— Letters of Horace Walpole, V4 • Horace Walpole

... I once saw raised in a paltry village near Chelmsford, after a poor hungry fox, who, watching his opportunity, had seized by the neck, and shouldered a sleek-feathered goose: at what time we beheld the whole vicinage of boys and girls, old men, and old women, all the furrows and wrinkles of the latter filled up with malice for the time; the old men armed with prongs, pitch-forks, clubs, and catsticks; ...
— Clarissa, Volume 4 (of 9) - History Of A Young Lady • Samuel Richardson

... portrait, M. de Balzac, enveloped in the large folds of a monk's habit, sits with his arms crossed, in a calm and strong attitude; the neck is uncovered, the look firm and direct; the light, shining from above, illumines the satin-like smoothness of the upper parts of the forehead, and throws a bright light on the bumps of imagination and humour, which are strongly developed in M. de Balzac; the ...
— Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings • Mary F. Sandars

... iii, p. 235) mentioned a woman who was tormented by strong sexual desire, which she satisfied by masturbation ten or twelve times a day; this caused no bad results, and led to the immediate disappearance of a severe pain in the back of the neck, from which she often suffered. Clouston (Mental Diseases, 1887, p. 496) quotes as follows from a letter written by a youth of 22: "I am sure I cannot explain myself, nor give account of such conduct. ...
— Studies in the Psychology of Sex, Volume 1 (of 6) • Havelock Ellis

... chain or our stocks?" "We pen him up," said he, "as we would a bear!" The cage is made of bamboos laid horizontally in a square, piled alternately, secured by timbers at the corners, and strongly covered in at top. To lead a runaway they fasten a rattan round his neck, and, passing it through a bamboo somewhat longer than his arms, they bring his hands together and make them fast to the bamboo, in a state rather of constraint than of pain, which I believe never is wantonly ...
— The History of Sumatra - Containing An Account Of The Government, Laws, Customs And - Manners Of The Native Inhabitants • William Marsden

... around her father's neck, her head nestling on his shoulder before he had fairly entered the door. "Daddy, dear, is it ...
— Peter - A Novel of Which He is Not the Hero • F. Hopkinson Smith

... heard people saying, in the congregation round me: "She is better looking than Mme. Sazerat" or "than Mlle. Vinteuil," as though she had been in any way comparable with them. And my gaze resting upon her fair hair, her blue eyes, the lines of her neck, and overlooking the features which might have reminded me of the faces of other women, I cried out within myself, as I admired this deliberately unfinished sketch: "How lovely she is! What true nobility! it is indeed a proud Guermantes, ...
— Swann's Way - (vol. 1 of Remembrance of Things Past) • Marcel Proust

... Oh, do you think Mrs. Minot will let you fill the horns when they are done? I'd love to help you then. Be sure you send for me!" cried Molly Loo, arching her neck like a proud pigeon to watch the glitter of her purple and gold necklace ...
— Jack and Jill • Louisa May Alcott

... good Antimony, Salt-Petre and Tartar, of each an equal weight, and of Quicklime Halfe the Weight of any one of them; let these be powder'd and well mingl'd; this done, you must have in readiness a long neck or Retort of Earth, which must be plac'd in a Furnace for a naked Fire, and have at the top of it a hole of a convenient Bigness, at which you may cast in the Mixture, and presently stop it up again; this Vessel being fitted ...
— The Sceptical Chymist • Robert Boyle

... kissed her child. She did not even weep, until she was in her room; then, indeed, she went to her knees, her tears, and her prayers. Beulah, all heart and truth as she was, wept freely on her brother's neck; but Maud, though pale and trembling, received his kiss without returning it; though she could not help saying with a meaning that the young man had in his mind all that day, ay, and for many succeeding days—"be careful of yourself, and run into no unnecessary ...
— Wyandotte • James Fenimore Cooper

... hand would sometimes slip down, and the head would droop, and a dream of home and mother would visit the weary one, only to be roughly dispelled by the swift descent of the stinging lash, for the baby had cried out and the mother had been awakened. This is no fictitious tale. That poor neck is even now covered with the scars which sixty years of life have not been able to efface. It may be that she was thus being prepared by the long habit of enforced wakefulness, for the night watches in the woods, and in dens and caves of the earth, when the pursuers were on her ...
— Harriet, The Moses of Her People • Sarah H. Bradford

... Expansion. In our Speculations of Eternity, we consider the Time which is present to us as the Middle, which divides the whole Line into two equal Parts. For this Reason, many witty Authors compare the present Time to an Isthmus or narrow Neck of Land, that rises in the midst of an Ocean, immeasurably diffused on either Side ...
— The Spectator, Volumes 1, 2 and 3 - With Translations and Index for the Series • Joseph Addison and Richard Steele

... a field and went to see what they had found. It was a second partridge which Old Gaarge had shot in the morning and had lost, the bird having flown to some distance before dropping. The magpies had probably found it already dead, as it was cold; they had begun tearing the skin at the neck and had opened it down to the breast-bone. Caleb took this bird, too, and by and by, sitting down to examine it, he thought he would try to mend the torn skin with the needle and thread he always carried inside ...
— A Shepherd's Life • W. H. Hudson

... up in the bed and bared his neck and shoulder, one arm and half his chest; and with his face crimson, turned his eyes away. She had been among the women in the fort during that summer thirteen years before, when the battle of the Blue Licks had been fought; ...
— The Choir Invisible • James Lane Allen

... here, however, it had to pass a government inspector, who sat in the doorway and felt of the glands in the neck for tuberculosis. This government inspector did not have the manner of a man who was worked to death; he was apparently not haunted by a fear that the hog might get by him before he had finished his ...
— The Jungle • Upton Sinclair

... curled through the air. Tad gave it a quick undulating motion after feeling the pull on the pony's neck, and the next moment the little animal ...
— The Pony Rider Boys in Montana • Frank Gee Patchin

... Rose was thrown around her aunt's neck, and its gentle pressure announced how completely the offender ...
— Jack Tier or The Florida Reef • James Fenimore Cooper

... feet, silenced for the moment, but not altogether vanquished. She put her arms round her mother's neck. ...
— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... didn't run because I didn't think of it—if my back had been against a stone wall I couldn't have felt more cornered. I saw his coils tighten—now he would spring, spring his length, I remembered. I ran up and drove at his head with my spade, struck him fairly across the neck, and in a minute he was all about my feet in wavy loops. I struck now from hate. Antonia, barefooted as she was, ran up behind me. Even after I had pounded his ugly head flat, his body kept on coiling and winding, doubling and falling ...
— My Antonia • Willa Cather

... 'there did not seem to be a soul about, I went into the centre and stood there. Suddenly a tall woman stood beside me. "Something told me I was wanted!" she said. I held out my hand and laid a piece of silver on it. She took from her neck a small golden trinket and laid it there also; and then, seizing the two, threw them into the stream that ran by. Then she took my hand in hers and spoke: "Naught but blood in this guilty place," and turned away. I caught hold of her and asked her ...
— Dracula's Guest • Bram Stoker

... could be overlooked. If there was a wicked horse or a wild colt whose owner was afraid of him, he would be commended to Maurice's attention. Paolo would lead him to his master with all due precaution,—for he had no idea of risking his neck on the back of any ill-conditioned beast,—and Maurice would fasten on his long spurs, spring into the saddle, and very speedily teach the creature good behavior. There soon got about a story that he was what the fresh-water fisherman called "one o' them whisperers." ...
— The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (The Physician and Poet not the Jurist)

... give Virginia a perfect system of county roads, so that one may get off at a station and go to the nearest country-house without breaking his neck, and it would take five hundred millions ...
— Literary Hearthstones of Dixie • La Salle Corbell Pickett

... gart Kings ken that they had a lith in their neck' (Lord Auchinleck), v. 382, n. 2; 'On a thirtieth of January every King in Europe would rise with a crick in his neck' (Quin), v. 382, n. 2; 'If you have so many things that will break, you had better break your neck at once, and there's ...
— Life of Johnson, Volume 6 (of 6) • James Boswell

... up, and as soon as he could disentwine his little arms from about his neck, turned him toward Keith. The child gave the stranger one of those calm, scrutinizing looks that children give, and then, his face suddenly breaking into a smile, with a rippling laugh of good-comradeship, he sprang into Keith's outstretched arms. That gentleman's necktie was in danger ...
— Gordon Keith • Thomas Nelson Page

... leaned so heavily on the handle of his spear that the wood cracked. And his wife, Irma, bending forward from the ranks of women, pushed the golden hair from her forehead with one hand. The other dragged at the silver chain about her neck until the rough links pierced her flesh, and the red drops fell unheeded on ...
— The Blue Flower, and Others • Henry van Dyke

... to expect. The Emperor returned after the briefest of circuits; he descended in great pomp from his throne, with the severest resolution never to remount it. A public thanksgiving was ordered for his majesty's happy escape from the disease of a broken neck; and the state-coach was dedicated thenceforward as a votive offering to the god Fo Fo—whom the learned more accurately called ...
— The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc • Thomas de Quincey

... whole fabric is claimed to be "sacred and divine," and to question it, "sacrilege" and "profanation of holy things." Thus, that which seemed originally as wings to the toiling, sorrowing children of men, becomes at last a "millstone about the neck," a "burden grievous ...
— The New Avatar and The Destiny of the Soul - The Findings of Natural Science Reduced to Practical Studies - in Psychology • Jirah D. Buck

... now a girl of sixteen. The only sign she showed of interest in her person, appeared in her hair and the covering of her neck. Of one of the many middle shades of brown, with a rippling tendency to curl in it, her hair was parted with nicety, and drawn back from her face into a net of its own colour, while her neckerchief was of blue silk, covering a very ...
— Heather and Snow • George MacDonald

... face was the centre of a little circle; there, a bevy of girls clustered about a young man, who, his hands in his pockets, leaned carelessly against the door-arch; and again, another, plump and much befeathered, with a string of large pearlbeads round her fat, white neck, had isolated herself from the rest, to take up, on the steps, a more favourable stand. A master who went by, a small, jovial man in a big hat, had a word for all the girls, even a chuck of the chin for one unusually saucy face. Inside, classes were filing out of the various rooms, other classes ...
— Maurice Guest • Henry Handel Richardson

... garments and, in a few minutes, was sound asleep. At four o'clock Garcia roused him. The morning was breaking and, with the assistance of the muleteer, he made his toilet and stained his face, neck, and hands, and darkened his hair. Then they each ate a piece of bread with a bunch of grapes, took a drink of red wine, and then sallied out; Garcia carrying his sheepskin cloak, and Terence the three coloured blankets. A quarter of a mile farther, ...
— Under Wellington's Command - A Tale of the Peninsular War • G. A. Henty

... filled with milk; and the gusto with which the savage-looking beasts uncorked the bottles and drank from them greatly amused the audience. Ikey, standing on his hind legs, his head thrown back, with both paws clasping the base of the bottle, shoved the neck far down his throat, and then, hurling it from him, and cocking his clown's hat over his eyes, gave a masterful imitation ...
— The Nature Faker • Richard Harding Davis

... a pathetic pale creature, as she met him in the dusk of the candle-lighted room, little more than a child, he thought, as he noted her round arms and neck within the film of her white dress. Esther did not need to assume a pathos for the moment's needs. She was very sorry for herself. They sat there by the windows, looking out under the shade of the elms, and for a little neither spoke. Esther had some primitive feminine ...
— The Prisoner • Alice Brown

... the disease. Both were women, one of twenty-six and the other of fifty years, and in them the pustules were well marked, and the general symptoms similar to the other cases. The latter patient said she had been bitten by a fly upon the back d the neck, at which part the carbuncle appeared; and the former, that she had also been bitten upon the right upper arm by a gnat. Upon inquiry, Wagner found that the skin of one of the infected beasts had been hung on a neighboring wall, and thought it very possible ...
— Andersonville, complete • John McElroy

... fourth act poor demented Ophelia takes part in the plays of the village-maidens. The Swedish song she sings to them is full of sweet pathos. When her playmates leave her, she hides {116} among the willows, enticed into the water by the "Neck" (Swedish for Sirens), whose own song she has sung. Slowly floating out on the waves her voice dies away softly. With her death the interest in the opera ends; however a fifth act takes us to her grave, where the whole funeral procession arrives. The ghost once more appeals to Hamlet for vengeance, ...
— The Standard Operaglass - Detailed Plots of One Hundred and Fifty-one Celebrated Operas • Charles Annesley

... an instant, and unable to restrain the impulse of his good heart he sprang up and, throwing his arms around Geppetto's neck, he began kissing him ...
— Pinocchio - The Tale of a Puppet • C. Collodi

... lead, with Laura astride his neck, and the newly-inspired and very grateful immigrants picked up their tired limbs with quite a spring in them and dropped into ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain

... "I'll break that boy's neck when he comes back," he muttered. "It's a shame to leave all this work for his poor, ...
— Helping Himself • Horatio Alger

... figures. The Nair girl is carefully chaperoned until she arrives at a marriageable age, say, fourteen or fifteen years, at which time some complaisant individual is selected, who goes through the marriage ceremony with her. As soon as the groom ties the tali, or marriage cord, about her neck, he is feasted and is then dismissed; the wife must never again speak to, or even look at, her husband. Once safely wedded, the girl becomes emancipated, and can receive the attentions of as many men as she may elect, though, I am informed, it is not considered fashionable, ...
— Religion and Lust - or, The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual Desire • James Weir

... It's just that I'm used to him," said Sarah, colouring all over her clear, fresh face, even to the little tendrils of red hair on her white neck. ...
— Peter's Mother • Mrs. Henry De La Pasture

... endeavoured to cross the donkeys. "Simba," a fine wild Kinyamwezi donkey, went in first, with a rope attached to his neck. He had arrived at the middle of the stream when we saw him begin to struggle—a crocodile had seized him by the throat. The poor animal's struggles were terrific. Chowpereh was dragging on the rope ...
— How I Found Livingstone • Sir Henry M. Stanley

... bloom at this season, climbing around the sides and supports. Does Alexander sit here in the autumn sunshine and while the hours away? Nay, in fact he is still one of the active, working members of the family, ever in the fields with his grandchildren, poke around his neck, extracting fleecy cotton from the bolls and putting it deftly into the poke. He can carry his row equally as well as any of the six grandchildren. He has a good appetite at meal time, digestive organs ...
— Slave Narratives: a Folk History of Slavery in the United States From Interviews with Former Slaves • Works Projects Administration

... gems. But since her eyes, her teeth, her lip excels All that is found in mines or fishes' shells, Her nobler part as far exceeding these, None but immortal gifts her mind should please. The shining jewels Greece and Troy bestow'd On Sparta's queen,[1] her lovely neck did load, And snowy wrists; but when the town was burn'd, Those fading glories were to ashes turn'd; 40 Her beauty, too, had perished, and her fame, Had not the Muse redeemed them ...
— Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham • Edmund Waller; John Denham

... now in his absence, and when his name was under contempt by Diabolus. There was signified also, that his Prince had taken it well that he had been so faithful to the town of Mansoul, in his keeping of so strict a hand and eye over and so strict a rein upon the neck of the Diabolonians, that did still lie lurking in their several holes in the famous town of Mansoul. He signified, moreover, how that he understood that my Lord had, with his own hand, done great execution upon some of the chief of the rebels there, to the great ...
— The Holy War • John Bunyan

... thought she should never see it again, but she was mistaken. It fell among the rushes on the borders of a little woodland lake. The bottle neck remembered well how long it lay there unseen. "I gave them wine, and they gave me muddy water," he had said to himself, "but I suppose it was all well meant." He could no longer see the betrothed couple, nor the cheerful ...
— Fairy Tales of Hans Christian Andersen • Hans Christian Andersen

... grabbed the wall; saw someone lie Humped at his feet, half-hidden by a rug, And stooped to give the sleeper's arm a tug. "I'm looking for headquarters." No reply. "God blast your neck!" (For days he'd had no sleep.) "Get up and guide me through this stinking place." Savage, he kicked a soft, unanswering heap, And flashed his beam across the livid face Terribly glaring up, whose eyes yet wore Agony dying hard ten days before; And fists of fingers clutched ...
— Modern British Poetry • Various

... her white arms and shoulders bare, and glistening with snowy pearls. Her soft unbound hair fell over her neck in a flood of light, and a subtle perfume, like the breath of blooming ...
— The Fatal Glove • Clara Augusta Jones Trask

... me then that my home would be in his heart—that my beautiful Alma would be his child! My Alma, my beautiful babe! how sweetly she nestles her little face in his neck. She has stolen her mother's place; little thief! I wonder she does not steal his whole heart to the clear shutting out of ...
— The Wedding Guest • T.S. Arthur

... inquiry, I find by one, that saw the Monstrous Calf and stone, within four hours after it was cut out of the Cows belly, that the Breast of the Calf was not stony (as I wrote) but that the skin of the Breast and between the Legs and of the Neck (which parts lay on the smaller end of the stone) was very much thicker, than on any other part, and that the Feet of the Calf were so parted as to be like the Claws of a Dog. The stone I have since seen; it is bigger at one end {21} than the other; of no ...
— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various



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