Idiom
pain in the neck
Meaning
Someone or something which is annoying, irritating or inconvenient.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“That loud neighbor is a real pain in the neck.”
“Filling out all these tax forms every year is a total pain in the neck.”
“While he appreciated the opportunity to lead the project, the constant administrative paperwork proved to be an absolute pain in the neck.”
Examples
simple
“That loud neighbor is a real pain in the neck.”
contextual
“Filling out all these tax forms every year is a total pain in the neck.”
complex
“While he appreciated the opportunity to lead the project, the constant administrative paperwork proved to be an absolute pain in the neck.”
Origin
The idiom was first attested in the 1920s. It is generally understood as a euphemism for more anatomically specific frustrations, though the decade of its arrival provides the only recorded historical anchor.
Key words
Related idioms
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