Meanings
- datednot comparableBodily (and with force); completely, altogether.First known use 18th c.
She turned him neck and crop out of the house.
4 more examples
"They turned her out into the street neck and crop."
1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 41”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC"Don't you realise that he'll pick them up and throw them out of here, neck and crop--the whole crew, every man in the town, if necessary?"
1917, Upton Sinclair, King Coal, chapter 12"Out he goes, Edmund, neck and crop. Out, by thunder."
1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 76In the darkness he fell on him, dragged him to the back gate, and flung him out neck-and-crop.
1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter II, in Capricornia, page 24Synonyms: neck and heels
Synonyms & antonyms
adverbBodily (and with force); completely, altogether.
Origin
Uncertain, but crop may refer to the backside of a horse, so that a horse that fell neck and crop had both its neck and backside hit the ground.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Dutch met kop en kont
- met kop en kontcompletely and with violence
Cite this entry
neck and crop. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neck%20and%20crop
“neck and crop.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neck%20and%20crop. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “neck and crop,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neck%20and%20crop.
Source: neck and crop on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.