neck guard

English

A helmet with mail neck guards.

Noun

neck guard (plural neck guards)

1. A piece of armor or protective equipment which protects the neck.
   • 2019, Lisa Kelly, Triumphs From Notre Dame: Echoes of Her Loyal Sons and Daughters, Dog Ear Publishing, →ISBN, page 200:

     […] and even though she did eventually agree, she had one rule: I had to wear a neck guard or a neck roll [to play football].

   • 2020, DK, The Sports Book: The Sports*The Rules*The Tactics*The Techniques, Penguin (→ISBN)

     […] padded shorts—sometimes known as Breezers—a “jock” athletic protector, shin guards, and sometimes a neck guard.

   1. A part of a helmet (of mail, plate, etc) which extends down to protect the neck.
      • 2014, Hilary & John Travis, Roman Helmets, Amberley Publishing Limited, →ISBN:

        They have embossed eyebrow features on the front of the bowl and two ribs on the neck guards. The Stara Gradiška helmet was formed from sixteen separate parts altogether, including bowl, neck guard, cheek pieces, reinforcing strips and ...

   2. A ridge or an additional plate on a shoulder piece which projects upward to protect the neck: see passguard.
      • 1898, The Archaeological Journal, page 120:

        The pauldrons, or shoulder defences, show the slight upright neck guards, erroneously called pasguards. The rerebras and vambras protecting the upper and fore arms have faint spiral ridges on them […]

      • 1902, William Ryland Dent Adkins, R. M. Serjeantson, Louis Francis Salzman, William Page, The Victoria History of the County of Northampton:

        Round the neck is the mail gorget, and under the tabard appear the upright neck guards of the pauldrons,

      • 2012, J L Myers, New Blood: Rise and Fall of Queens of Blood, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 189:

        Lady Joan stood at the top of the ladder in full upper armor[:] a breastplate with a pauldrons with high neck guards. Chainmail covered both arms with rerebrace, couter, and vambrace. A fencing glove was on her right hand and a gauntlet ...

      • 2013, George Cameron Stone, A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times, Courier Corporation, →ISBN, page 443:

        The pauldrons are larger and the upstanding neck guards are pronounced.

Alternative forms

• neck-guard, neckguard