necks

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of neck.

   The swans curved their slender necks over the still water.

   Workers wrapped scarves around their necks against the cold wind.

   Note

   An ordinary -s plural that carries every meaning of the singular with it. Swans and giraffes have necks, but so do shirts and dresses, bottles tapering toward their openings, and violins and guitars, where the fingerboard is mounted. Botanists even speak of the necks of archegonia, the slender tubes that sperm swim through to reach the egg.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of neck.

   The young couple necks on a bench in the corner of the park.

   Whenever the lights dim, she necks with him as if no one is watching.

   Note

   This form shares its spelling with the plural noun but belongs to a verb with very different moods. In informal American use a couple necks, or one person necks with another, with no direct object. Add an object and it turns to slang: someone necks a drink, gulping it down, or, more darkly, necks a rival. Said of a shape, it simply means narrowing, as when a tube necks toward one end.

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