neck
n. countablen. the part of the body that connects your head to your shoulders. It is also the narrow part of an object, like a bottle or a guitar.
n. the part of an organism that connects the head to the torso; by extension, any narrow or constricted part of an object that connects larger sections.
She wore a warm scarf around her neck.
The guitarist moved his hand quickly up the neck of the instrument to play the high notes.
The surgeon noted a slight swelling in the patient's neck, suggesting that the lymph nodes were responding to a localized infection.
From Middle English nekke, nakke, from Old English hnecca, hnæcca (“neck, nape”), from Proto-Germanic hnakkô (“nape, neck”), from Proto-Indo-European knog-, kneg- (“back of the head, nape, neck”). Cognate with Scots nek (“neck”), North Frisian neek, neeke, Nak (“neck”), Saterland Frisian Näkke (“neck”), West Frisian nekke (“neck”), Dutch nek (“neck”), German Low German Nack (“neck”), German Nacken (“nape of the neck”), Danish nakke (“neck”), Swedish nacke (“nape of the neck”), Icelandic hnakki (“neck”), Tocharian A kñuk (“neck, nape”). Possibly a mutated variant of *kneug/k (compare Old English hnocc (“hook, penis”), Welsh cnwch (“joint, knob”), Latvian knaūķis (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).
From Danish nøkke, Swedish näck.
Commonly used in idioms such as 'pain in the neck' to describe an annoying person or situation.