different between scruff vs neck

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sk??f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

See scurf.

Noun

scruff (countable and uncountable, plural scruffs)

1. Someone with an untidy appearance.

2. Stubble, facial hair (on males).
3. (obsolete) Crust.
4. (obsolete) Scurf.

Derived terms

• scruffy

Translations

Etymology 2

1790, from earlier (1787) scuft, influenced by scruff (“crust”). Related to North Frisian skuft (“back of the neck of a horse”) and Dutch schoft (“withers (of a horse)”), from Proto-Germanic. Compare also Old Norse skopt (“hair of the head”), Gothic ???????????????????? (skuft, “hair of the head”), Middle High German schopf (German Schopf).

Noun

scruff (plural scruffs)

1. The loose skin at the back of the neck of some animals.
2. (rare) The back of the neck, nape; also scruff of the neck.

   He grabbed his unruly child by the scruff of the neck, and took him home.

Usage notes

Strictly refers to the loose skin at the back of the neck – found on many mammals, though not humans – rather than the back of the neck itself. While this distinction is not always observed, scruff is used almost exclusively in the phrase “to grab [someone/something] by the scruff [of the neck]”.

Synonyms

• nape
• nucha, nuchal (medical)
• withers (of a horse)

Translations

Verb

scruff (third-person singular simple present scruffs, present participle scruffing, simple past and past participle scruffed)

1. To lift or carry by the scruff.

See also

• scuff

References

English

Etymology

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 kna??is (“dwarf”). Doublet of nek. More at nook. Displaced halse (“neck, throat”) and swire (“neck”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /n?k/
• Rhymes: -?k

Noun

neck (plural necks)

1. (anatomy) The part of the body connecting the head and the trunk found in humans and some animals.

2. The corresponding part in some other anatomical contexts.
3. The part of a shirt, dress etc., which fits a person's neck.
4. The tapered part of a bottle toward the opening.
5. (botany) The slender tubelike extension atop an archegonium, through which the sperm swim to reach the egg.
6. (music) The extension of any stringed instrument on which a fingerboard is mounted
7. A long narrow tract of land projecting from the main body, or a narrow tract connecting two larger tracts.
8. (engineering) A reduction in size near the end of an object, formed by a groove around it.

   a neck forming the journal of a shaft

9. The constriction between the root and crown of a tooth.
10. (architecture) The gorgerin of a capital.
11. (firearms) The small part of a gun between the chase and the swell of the muzzle.
12. (figuratively) A person's life.

    to risk one's neck; to save someone's neck

13. (informal, MLE, slang) A falsehood; a lie.
14. (folklore) shapeshifting water spirits in Germanic mythology and folklore

    Synonyms: Neck, nicor, nokk, nix, nixie, nixy, nokken, näck, Näcken

Synonyms

• cervix, collum

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• throat

Verb

neck (third-person singular simple present necks, present participle necking, simple past and past participle necked)

1. To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate

2. (chiefly US) To make love; to intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.

   Synonyms: French kiss, grope, pet, smoodge, snog, snuggle, smooch

3. To drink rapidly.

   Synonym: chug

   • 2006, Sarah Johnstone, Tom Masters, London

     In the dim light, punters sit sipping raspberry-flavoured Tokyo martinis, losing the freestyle sushi off their chopsticks or necking Asahi beer.
4. To decrease in diameter.
   • 2007, John H. Bickford, Introduction to the Design and Behavior of Bolted Joints, page 272

     Since this temperature would place the bolt in its creep range, it will slowly stretch, necking down as it does so. Eventually it will get too thin to support the weight, and the bolt will break.

Derived terms

• necking

Translations

Anagrams

• Enck