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. Sir W. Scott. (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. Fuller.

-- 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. "Commiting one sin on the neck of another." W. Perkins. -- Stiff neck, obstinacy in evil or wrong; inflexible obstinacy; contumacy. "I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck." Deut. xxxi. 27. -- To break the neck of, to destroy the main force of. "What they presume to borrow from her sage and virtuous rules . . . breaks the neck of their own cause." Milton. -- To harden the neck, to grow obstinate; to be more and more perverse and rebellious. Neh. ix. 17. -- To tread on the neck of, to oppress; to tyrannize over.