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) completely and with violence

   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:

     "She was a governess in the family of some Roman prince, and the son of the house seduced her. She thought he was going to marry her. They turned her out into the street neck and crop. She was going to have a baby, and she tried to commit suicide. Stroeve found her and married her."

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

     "In Peter Harrigan's mines! 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:

     "Have it out with him to-night. Fair and square. 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.