d.1536. Tyndale, Workes, 112. Yea set foorth a neckeuerse to saue all maner of trespassers, fro the feare of the sword.
1578. Whetstone, Promos and Cass., iv., 4. And it behoves me to be secret, or else my neck-verse cun [con].
1578. Lyte, Transl. of Dodoen's Hist. of Plantes, fol. 72. Hempe is called in . . . English, necke-weede, and Gallows grasse.
1578. Hist. of K. Lier [Six Old Plays, ii, 410]. Madam, I hope your grace will stand Betweene me and my neck-verse, if I be Call'd in question for opening the king's letters.
1586. Marlowe, Jew of Malta, iv., 4. Within forty foot of the gallows conning his neck-verse.
1587. Greene, Menaphon [Grosart, Works (1886), vi, 15]. A sort of shifting companions, that . . . busie themselues with the indeuors of Art, that could scarcelie latinize their necke-verse if they should haue neede.
1593. Harvey, Pierces Supererogation [Grosart, Works (1884-5), ii., 281]. Thy penne is as very a Gentleman Foist, as any pick-purse liuing; and, that which is most miserable, not a more famous neck-verse, than thy choice.
1630. Taylor, Works [Nares]. Some call it neck-weed, for it hath a tricke To cure the necke that's troubled with the crick.
1637. Massinger, Guardian, iv., 1. Have not your instruments To tune, when you should strike up, but twang it perfectly, As you would read your neck-verse.
1647. Beaumont and Fletcher, Bonduca, iv., 1. What's the crime committed That they wear necklaces?
1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist. These words, 'bread and cheese,' were their neck-verse or shibboleth to distinguish them.
1659. Clobery Div. Glimpses [quoted in Slang, Jargon, and Cant], The judge will read thy neck-verse for thee here.
1662. Rump Songs, 'The Rump Dock't,' ii, 45. Instead of neck-verse, Shall have it writ on his Herse, There hangs one of the King's Fryers.
1664. Cotton, Virgil Travestie [Wks. (1725), Bk. iv., p. 133]. Seeing the Rope Ty'd to the Beam i' th' Chamber-*top, With neat alluring Noose, her sick grace E'en long'd to wear it for a necklace.
1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Neck-verse. A Favor (formerly) indulged to the Clergy only, but (now) to the Laity also, to mitigate the Rigor of the Law, as in Man-slaughter, etc. Reading a verse out of an old Manuscript Latin Psalter (tho' the Book now used by the Ordinary is the same Printed in an Old English Character) save the Criminal's Life. Nay now even the Women (by a late Act of Parliament) have (in a manner) the benefit of their Clergy, tho' not so much as put to Read; for in such cases where the men are allow'd it; the Women are of course sizz'd in the Fist, without running the risque of a Halter by not Reading.
1710 Old Song (in British Apollo). 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.
1725. New Cant. Dict., s.v.
1755. Johnson, Eng. Dict., s.v.
1785. Grose, Vulg Tongue. The . . . neck verse . . . was the first verse of the fifty-first psalm, Miserere mei, etc.
c.1816. Old Song, 'The Night Before Larry was Stretched,' [Farmer, Musa Pedestris (1896), 79]. For the neckcloth I don't care a button.
1823. Grose, Vulg. Tongue [Egan], s.v.
1859. Matsell, Vocabulum, s.v.
1877. J. H. Beadle, Western Wilds [Bartlett]. He joined the Vigilantes, and had the pleasure of presiding at a necktie sociable where two of the men who had robbed him were hanged.
1886. Notes and Queries, 7 S., ii., 98. Neckinger is nothing more than neckerchief, but implies, I think, its proximity to a place of execution, the 'Devil's Neckerchief on the way to Redriffe,' which sign would further imply that it was euphemistic or slang for the gallows, the rope, or the hempen collar.
2. (old colloquial).—To swallow. Also to wash the neck.—Bee (1823).
Neck and crop, adv. (colloquial).—See quot., 1823.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, etc., s.v. Neck and Crop. Turn him out neck and crop, is to push one forth all of a heap, down some steps or stairs being understood, so that the patient may pitch upon his neck (or head).
