> as lemmas

c1385 G. Chaucer Knight's Tale 1218 Lat hym be war his nekke lith to wedde.

a1450 Castle Perseverance (1969) l. 438 Ȝys, and ellys haue þou my necke, But I be manly be downe and dyche.

1496 Treat. Fysshynge wyth Angle in Bk. St. Albans (rev. ed.) sig. iiv Theuys and brybours..whyche are punysshed for theyr euyll dedes by the necke.

1600 W. Shakespeare Henry V iv. viii. 44 Let his necke answere it, If there be any marshals lawe in the worell.

1646 in Hamilton Papers (1880) 118 To this litle purpose hath the King's commands put his necke to a new hazard.

1685 J. Evelyn Diary (1955) IV. 494 West, who..had reveald the Complices, to save his owne neck.

1724 ‘C. Johnson’ Gen. Hist. Pyrates iii. 54 None will be so foolish, as to..run the Hazard of their Necks.

1809 B. H. Malkin tr. A. R. Le Sage Adventures Gil Blas I. ii. vii. 291 [I] rejoiced at getting my neck out of an halter.

1851 N. Hawthorne House of Seven Gables xix. 308 If I were a young man..my sweetheart should have one of those flowers.., though I risked my neck climbing for it!

1874 A. Trollope Phineas Redux II. xxxvii. 301 Had she not..been the first among those who had striven,—and had striven at last successfully,—to save his neck from the halter?

1893 Earl of Dunmore Pamirs I. 67 One and all rode like demons, without the slightest regard for the safety of their own necks.

1915 C. P. Gilman Herland in Forerunner Apr. 95/1 We did not have to risk our necks to that extent,..for.., stealing along among the rocks and trees..we came to that flat space where we had landed.

1953 J. Wain Hurry on Down (1960) 126 Anybody's think I was asking your to risk your neck for me, instead of just suggesting that you do me a little favour.

1973 Daily Pennsylvanian Oct. 6/3 ‘They're out for our necks,’ commented Wetzel about the West Chester team.

1990 B. Moore Lies of Silence iii. 55 She needn't think that bein' a Catholic from the Falls is goin' to save her neck.