Meaning & use
neckless
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Meaning
adjectivecomparablerare
Having no neck, or having a neck so short and thick that the head seems to sit directly on the shoulders.
Grammar: Can come before a noun: a neckless figure. It can also follow a linking verb: the toad looked neckless.
Patterns
- a neckless figure
- look neckless
The cartoonist drew a neckless snowman with a hat perched on its round body.
Seen from the side, the toad looks almost neckless.
The wrestler was thick and neckless, with a head that seemed fixed to his shoulders.
Common combinations
- neckless figure
- A neckless figure stood in the doorway, blocking the light.
- neckless bruiser
- The film cast a neckless bruiser as the club's bouncer.
- almost neckless
- The bird looked almost neckless when it tucked in its head against the cold.
Synonyms and how they differ
- bull-necked
- Bull-necked means having a thick, powerful neck, so it suggests strength, whereas neckless suggests no visible neck at all.
- stocky
- Stocky describes the whole body as short and sturdy, but it does not single out the missing neck.
- squat
- Squat suggests short height and broadness overall and can describe objects as well as people.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: neckless or breathless?
neckless vs breathless
Breathless means out of breath, and it is not related to neckless even though both end in -less.
Practice
A writer calls a character neckless. What picture does the writer most likely want to give?
Choose one answer.
Neckless suggests that the neck is missing or hidden, giving a stocky, thick-set look. A long thin neck is the opposite, and the other options do not relate to the neck.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “neckless”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.