fall on someone's neck

present singular third person falls on someone's neck · participle present falling on someone's neck · past fell on someone's neck · participle past fallen on someone's neck

1. datedidiomaticTo embrace someone affectionately or thankfully.

   I ought to fall on your neck with joy. . . . You are my father's friend, my mother's, mine.

   1920, Harold MacGrath, chapter 24, in The Drums Of Jeopardy

   4 more examples

   [W]hen Theseus saw him, his heart leapt into his mouth, and he longed to fall on his neck and welcome him.

   1856, Charles Kingsley, The Heroes, Story III: Theseus

   If he expected either of them to fall on his neck and weep tears of gratitude at his pompous announcement, the colonel was disappointed.

   1910, William MacLeod Raine, chapter 15, in Bucky O'Connor

   "[T]he moment your delinquent showed the slightest sign of decency . . . you fell on his neck as if he had rescued you from drowning."

   1990 March 18, Anne Tyler, “Review of Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner”, in New York Times, retrieved 14 May 2015

   [A]fter falling on my neck and hugging me and calling me “cousin” like a character from a Jane Austen novel, . . . she sat me down.

   2012, Karen Templeton, chapter 25, in Hanging by a Thread, →ISBN