Word.ws English Dictionary

necking

necking is the present participle and gerund of neck.

Noun

necking (countable and uncountable, plural neckings)

  1. A behavior among male giraffes where they hold combat for social dominance using their necks as weapons.
    • Necking helps young male giraffes test which one has a stronger neck.2005, Barbara Keevil Parker, Giraffes, page 26
  2. A neckmould.
  3. (slang) Chugging beer.
    • For Lent, he gave up necking and cigarettes.
  4. (slang) Making out; kissing profusely, especially on the neck.
    • However one of the girls in answer to our questions explained that at the end of the ceremony the men and women participants are quite free to pair off for what she called “necking”.1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 74

Meaning of neck

Verb

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

  1. (slang, transitive) To hang by the neck; strangle; kill, eliminate.
    • Go neck yourself.
  2. (US, informal, intransitive) To intently kiss or cuddle; to canoodle.
    • Alan and Betty were necking in the back of a car when Betty's dad caught them.
  3. (slang, transitive) To drink or swallow rapidly.
    • Actually, mostly I swan around in my silver sports car, necking drugs, and feeling sorry for myself.2005, Stephen Price, Monkey Man, page 146
    Synonyms:
    chug
  4. (intransitive) To decrease in diameter.
    • 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.2007, John H. Bickford, Introduction to the Design and Behavior of Bolted Joints, page 272

See all 21 meanings of neck

Forms of necking

pluralneckings

Phrases with necking

Questions about necking

What does necking mean?
Necking means a behavior among male giraffes where they hold combat for social dominance using their necks as weapons.
What is necking the present participle and gerund of?
Necking is the present participle and gerund of neck.
What part of speech is necking?
Necking is a noun.
What is the plural of necking?
The plural of necking is neckings.

Words near necking in the dictionary

  1. neckholder
  2. neckholders
  3. neckholds
  4. neckhole
  5. neckholes
  6. necking
  7. necking down
  8. necking up
  9. neckinger
  10. neckingers
  11. neckings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: necking (page history and authors); 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-necking.ogg.

Cite this entry: “necking.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/necking. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.