1836. Dickens, Pickwick (1857), 125. When I was first pitched neck and crop into the world to play at leap frog with its troubles, replied Sam.
1847. Lytton, Lucretia, ii., xx. I was a-thinking of turning her out neck an' crop.
Neck or nothing, adv. (colloquial).—At every risk; desperately.
1708-10. Swift, Polite Conversations, 1. Neck or nothing; come down or I'll fetch you down.
1731. Fielding, Grub Street Opera, ii. 4. It is always neck or nothing with you.
1747. Gentleman Instructed, 526. The world is stock'd with neck or nothing; with men that will make over by retail an estate of a thousand pound per annum to a lawyer in expectation of being pleaded into another of two hundred.
1766. Garrick, Neck or Nothing [Title].
1842. Dickens, American Notes, iv., 38. And dashes on haphazard, pell-mell, neck-or-nothing, down the middle of the road.
1870. Daily News, 31 Mar. 'On Acrobats.' It must be literally neck or nothing with him, neck or 35s. per week.
1896. Sala, London Up to Date, 39. We resolved for once on a neck-or-nothing outing.
Neck and neck, adv. (colloquial.—Close; almost equal: as horses in a race.
1861-2. Earl Stanhope, Life of Pitt, xxii. After two neck and neck votes the same evening, the final numbers were 54 against 54.
1864. London Society, Oct., 389. Number 1 waltzes all round her affections, but No. 2 sings like 'ten cherubs,' and he finds her out at concerts, and comes to five o clock tea. It is neck-and-neck between Nos. 1 and 2.
On (or in) the neck of, phr. (colloquial).—Close upon, or behind.
1598. Shakspeare, 1 Henry IV., iv., 3. And in the neck of that tasked the whole state.
1775. Ash, Dict., s.v., Neck . . . on the neck, immediately after.
To win (or lose) by a neck, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To win (or lose) by next to nothing.
To break the neck of anything, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To get the worst part done: see quot.
1775. Ash, Dict., s.v. Neck . . . to break the neck, to do more than half, to hinder from being done.
To be shot in the neck, verb. phr. (American).—To be drunk. See Drinks and Screwed.
1855. Brooklyn Journal, 18 April. Mr. Schumacher defended his client by observing that some of the prisoners' attorneys got as often shot in the neck as the Under-Sheriff did in the head.
Unable to neck it, phr. (colloquial).—Lacking moral courage.
Also see Shut.
Neck-beef. As coarse as neck-beef,
phr. (common).—Very
coarse; of the poorest quality.
As subs. = a general synonym for
coarseness.
Neck-oil, subs. (old).—Drink;
lap (q.v.).
Neck-stamper, subs. phr. (old).—See
quots.
c.1696. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, s.v. Neck-stamper. The Pot-Boy at a Tavern or Ale-house.
1785. Grose, Vulg. Tongue, s.v. Neck-stamper, the boy who collects the pots belonging to an ale-house, sent out with beer to private houses.
