neck and crop

English

Etymology

Uncertain, but crop may refer to the backside of a horse, so that a horse that fell neck and crop had both its neck and backside hit the ground.

Adverb

neck and crop (not comparable)

1. (dated) Bodily (and with force); completely, altogether. [from 18th c.]

   She turned him neck and crop out of the house.

   • 1919, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, “chapter 41”, in The Moon and Sixpence, [New York, N.Y.]: Grosset & Dunlap Publishers […], →OCLC:

     "They turned her out into the street neck and crop."

   • 1917, Upton Sinclair, King Coal, chapter 12:

     "Don't you realise that he'll pick them up and throw them out of here, neck and crop--the whole crew, every man in the town, if necessary?"

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 76:

     "Out he goes, Edmund, neck and crop. Out, by thunder."

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter II, in Capricornia, page 24:

     In the darkness he fell on him, dragged him to the back gate, and flung him out neck-and-crop.

Synonyms

• neck and heels

Translations

completely and with violence

• Dutch: met kop en kont

See also

• come a cropper

References

• Michael Quinion (2004), “Come a cropper”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.