Word.ws English Dictionary

pencil-neck

pencil-neck noun: a person with a very thin neck.

Noun

pencil-neck (plural pencil-necks)

  1. (informal) A person with a very thin neck.
  2. (US, derogatory, idiomatic) An insubstantial person; a weakling.
    • That pencil-neck from systems isn't going to tell me what I can't do.
    • Mom said, “Sell it to the circus, what the heck.” / Dad said, “Nope, this one's a pencil neck / And if there's one thing lower than a side show freak / It's a grit eatin', scum suckin', pencil neck geek.”1977, Pete Cicero, Martin Margulies, “Pencil Neck Geek”, performed by Freddie Blassie & The Geekettes

Forms of pencil-neck

pluralpencil-necks
alternative formpencilneck
alternative formpencil neck

Origin of pencil-neck

From pencil + neck, popularized by wrestler Freddie Blassie.

Words formed from pencil-neck

Questions about pencil-neck

What does pencil-neck mean?
Pencil-neck means a person with a very thin neck.
What part of speech is pencil-neck?
Pencil-neck is a noun.
What is the plural of pencil-neck?
The plural of pencil-neck is pencil-necks.

Words near pencil-neck in the dictionary

  1. pencil whips
  2. pencil-blue
  3. pencil-blues
  4. pencil-holder
  5. pencil-holders
  6. pencil-neck
  7. pencil-necked
  8. pencil-necks
  9. pencil-post bed
  10. pencil-post beds
  11. pencil-pusher

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: pencil-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-pencil-neck.ogg.

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