Word.ws English Dictionary

neck verses

neck verses is the plural of neck verse.

Meaning of neck verse

Noun

neck verse (plural neck verses)

  1. The verse formerly read to entitle a party to the benefit of clergy, said to be the first verse of the fifty-first Psalm, "Miserere mei," etc.
    • I haue ſeene a pardon giuen to a man vpon the gallovves, but vvho ſo emboldeneth himſelfe thereuypon, perhaps the rope may be his hire: it is not good to put it vpon the Pſalme of Miſerere, and the neck-verſe, for ſometime he prooues no clarke.1619, Samuell Hieron, “The Worth of the Water of Life. Dauids Longing, and Dauids Loue. The Good Fight. [II. Tim[othy] 4. 7.]”, in The Sermons of Master Samuell Hieron, […], London: […] Iohn Beale...
  2. (broadly) A verse or saying, the utterance of which decides one's fate; a shibboleth.
    • These words, "bread and cheese," were their neck verse or shibboleth to distinguish them; all pronouncing "broad and cause," being presently put to death.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

Questions about neck verses

What is neck verses the plural of?
Neck verses is the plural of neck verse.

Words near neck verses in the dictionary

  1. neck sweetbread
  2. neck sweetbreads
  3. neck tie
  4. neck up
  5. neck verse
  6. neck verses
  7. neck yoke
  8. neck yokes
  9. neck-and-neck
  10. neck-brace
  11. neck-braces

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: neck verses (page history and authors); neck verse (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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