Meaning & use
collar
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Meanings
nouncountable
The part of a shirt, jacket or dress that wraps around the neck, often folded over.
Grammar: Countable: a shirt has one collar, a coat may have two layers of collars.
Patterns
- the collar of something
- turn up your collar
He loosened his collar after the long meeting.
She turned up the collar of her coat against the wind.
The tailor adjusted the collar so it lay flat.
nouncountable
A band put around the neck of a pet or working animal, used to hold a tag or lead.
Grammar: Countable: a dog collar, a cat collar.
Patterns
- a collar for something
The puppy's collar had her phone number on a small tag.
We bought a bright red collar for the cat.
The vet fitted a protective collar around the dog's neck.
verbtransitiveinformal
To catch hold of someone, especially to arrest them or stop them for a talk.
Grammar: Takes an object: the officer collared the thief.
Patterns
- collar someone
- get collared by someone
Police collared the burglar outside the shop.
I tried to leave quietly, but my manager collared me in the hall.
She collared a passing waiter and asked for the bill.
Word forms
| plural | collars |
|---|---|
| third person singular | collars |
| past tense | collared |
| past participle | collared |
| -ing form | collaring |
Common combinations
- shirt collar
- A drop of coffee stained his shirt collar.
- dog collar
- The dog's collar jingled as she ran.
- white-collar worker
- Many white-collar workers now spend the day at a desk.
- blue-collar job
- His father held a blue-collar job at the shipyard.
- hot under the collar
- He got hot under the collar when the bill was wrong.
- collar a suspect
- Detectives collared a suspect after a short chase.
Synonyms and how they differ
- neckband
- Neckband is a technical, sewing-related term for a plain strip around the neck, whereas collar often folds over.
- arrest
- Arrest is the formal legal word, while the verb collar is informal and also covers merely stopping someone to talk.
- nab
- Nab is informal like collar, but it stresses a quick seizure and rarely means stopping someone for a chat.
- buttonhole
- Buttonhole means to trap someone in conversation, so it matches only the talking sense of collar.
Word family
- collared adjective
- having a collar, as in a collared shirt
- collarbone noun
- the bone running between the shoulder and the base of the neck
- collarless adjective
- without a collar
- uncollared adjective
- not caught or arrested, used jokingly
Commonly confused: collar or choler?
collar vs choler
Choler is an old word for anger and shares only the sound, as in hot under the collar versus choleric.
Practice
In the sentence 'The sheriff collared the runaway in the parking lot,' what does collared mean?
Choose one answer.
Here collar is an informal verb meaning to catch or seize someone. Released is the opposite of what happened.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “collar”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.