ˈneck-verse
[f. neck n.1]
A Latin verse printed in black-letter (usually the beginning of the fifty-first psalm) formerly set before one claiming benefit of clergy (see clergy 6), by reading which he might save his neck. Now only Hist.
| a 1450 Mankind (Brandl) 506 Lett ws conne well owur neke verse, þat we haue not a choke. 1528 Tindale Obed. Chr. Man (1550) 81 b, They have a sanctuary for y⊇, to save y⊇, yee and a necverse, if thou canst but rede a litle latenli. 1578 Whetstone Promos & Cass. iv. iv, It behoues me to be secret, or else my neck verse cun. 1607 Hieron Wks. I. 223 It is not good to put it vpon the psalme of Miserere, and the neck-verse, for sometime he prooues no clarke. 1681 Otway Soldier's Fort. ii. i, The Rogue can't write his Name, nor read his Neck-Verse, if he had occasion. 1735 Savage Progr. Divine 14 Four years, thro' foggy ale, yet made him see, Just his neck-verse to read, and take degree. 1805 Scott Last Minstr. i. xxiv, Letter nor line know I never a one, Wer't my neck-verse at Hairibee. 1872 Shipley Gloss. Eccl. Terms 338 A deputy of the bishop..appointed to give malefactors their neck-verses, and judge whether they read or not. |
† b. In phr. to put (or bring) to the neck-verse. Also in fig. use. Obs.
| 1567 Golding Ovid's Met. vi. (1593) 127 She purposed to put the Lydian maid Arachne to her neck-verse. 1619 in Crt. & Times Jas. I (1848) II. 151 He..dissuaded earnestly from the enterprise, as that which was like enough..to bring them all to the neck-verse. 1623 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d' Alf. ii. 105, I swear I will put him to his Necke-verse, and see how well or ill he will come off. |
† c. In transf. or fig. uses. Obs.
| 1615 R. Brathwait Strappado (1878) 113 Her humour is my neck-verse, which to sort I cannot, if I should be hanged for't. 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iv. i. §20 These words, bread and cheese, were their neck-verse or Shibboleth, to distinguish them. a 1659 Bp. Brownrig Serm. (1674) I. xxxviii. 473 He looks upon the Scripture..as the very Neck-verse of his Condemnation. |