Word.ws English Dictionary

broke one's neck

broke one's neck is the simple past of break one's neck.

Meaning of break one's neck

Verb

break one's neck (third-person singular simple present breaks one's neck, present participle breaking one's neck, simple past broke one's neck, past participle broken one's neck)

  1. (idiomatic) To make extraordinary efforts to achieve an end; to exert oneself in pursuit of a goal.
    Synonyms:
    break one's back, bust one's ass, work one's ass off
  2. To suffer a fracture of one or more of the cervical vertebrae, especially one that injures the spinal cord.

Questions about broke one's neck

What is broke one's neck the simple past of?
Broke one's neck is the simple past of break one's neck.

Words near broke one's neck in the dictionary

  1. broke one's duck
  2. broke one's fall
  3. broke one's fast
  4. broke one's lance
  5. broke one's maiden
  6. broke one's neck
  7. broke one's promise
  8. broke one's stride
  9. broke one's word
  10. broke open
  11. broke out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: broke one's neck (page history and authors); break one's neck (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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