neck guard

noun

A piece of armor or protective equipment which protects the neck.

Meanings

nounneck guard (plural neck guards)

plural neck guards · alternative neck-guard · alternative neckguard

  1. A piece of armor or protective equipment which protects the neck.

    […] padded shorts—sometimes known as Breezers—a “jock” athletic protector, shin guards, and sometimes a neck guard.

    2020, DK, The Sports Book: The Sports*The Rules*The Tactics*The Techniques, Penguin
    1 more example

    […] and even though she did eventually agree, she had one rule: I had to wear a neck guard or a neck roll [to play football].

    2019, Lisa Kelly, Triumphs From Notre Dame: Echoes of Her Loyal Sons and Daughters, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 200
    1. A part of a helmet (of mail, plate, etc) which extends down to protect the neck.

      They have embossed eyebrow features on the front of the bowl and two ribs on the neck guards. The Stara Gradiška helmet was formed from sixteen separate parts altogether, including bowl, neck guard, cheek pieces, reinforcing strips and ...

      2014, Hilary & John Travis, Roman Helmets, Amberley Publishing Limited, →ISBN
    2. A ridge or an additional plate on a shoulder piece which projects upward to protect the neck: see passguard.

      The pauldrons are larger and the upstanding neck guards are pronounced.

      2013, George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 443
      3 more examples

      The pauldrons, or shoulder defences, show the slight upright neck guards, erroneously called pasguards. The rerebras and vambras protecting the upper and fore arms have faint spiral ridges on them […]

      1898, The Archaeological Journal, page 120

      Round the neck is the mail gorget, and under the tabard appear the upright neck guards of the pauldrons,

      1902, William Ryland Dent Adkins, R. M. Serjeantson, Louis Francis Salzman, William Page, The Victoria History of the County of Northampton

      Lady Joan stood at the top of the ladder in full upper armor[:] a breastplate with a pauldrons with high neck guards. Chainmail covered both arms with rerebrace, couter, and vambrace. A fencing glove was on her right hand and a gauntlet ...

      2012, J L Myers, New Blood: Rise and Fall of Queens of Blood, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 189

Synonyms & antonyms

Cite this entry
APA

neck guard. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neck%20guard

MLA

“neck guard.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neck%20guard. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “neck guard,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/neck%20guard.

Source: neck guard on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.