Word.ws English Dictionary

neckverse

neckverse is the alternative form 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)

Forms of neckverse

pluralneckverses

Questions about neckverse

What is neckverse the alternative form of?
Neckverse is the alternative form of neck verse.

Words near neckverse in the dictionary

  1. necktie-party
  2. necktied
  3. necktieless
  4. neckties
  5. necktooth
  6. neckverse
  7. neckverses
  8. neckward
  9. neckwarmer
  10. neckwarmers
  11. neckwear

Source and license

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