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necklace

nounverbcommon in dialogue

  • United Kingdom//ˈnɛklɪs//
  • United Kingdom//ˈnɛkləs//
  • United States//ˈnɛkləs//
  • Australia//ˈnɛkləs//
  • Australia//ˈnɛklæɪs//

An article of jewelry that is worn around the neck, most often made of a string of precious metal, pearls, gems, beads or shells, and sometimes having a pendant attached.

noun

  1. 1

    An article of jewelry that is worn around the neck, most often made of a string of precious metal, pearls, gems, beads or shells, and sometimes having a pendant attached.

  2. 2

    figurativeAnything resembling a necklace in shape.

    a necklace of coral islands

  3. 3

    A device used in necklacing (an informal execution); a rubber tyre that is filled with petrol. It is placed around the victim's chest and arms, and set on fire.

    Necklacing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

    Seven people have been arrested in connection with Saturday's "necklace" murder of three men in the Tjokville informal settlement at Jeffrey's Bay.

    Several of the alledged witches in Apel and GaNkaone were also subjected to a necklace execution

    In the fluidly unfolding events of a necklace murder, was there time and space to stop the killing?

Etymology

From neck + lace.

verb

  1. 1

    To informally execute by necklacing; by setting on fire a petrol-filled rubber tyre which has been put around the bound victim's neck.

    Frustrated residents tied the hands of two suspected criminals, put tyres around their necks and then set them alight. In a manifestation of growing disillusionment with the criminal justice system, residents of Bramfischerville, west of Johannesburg, on Tuesday abducted and necklaced two suspected burglars.

    2002 Buthelezi: A Biography by Ben Temkin Inkatha members have been hacked to death and necklaced, and their houses have been destroyed

    2000 Beyond Our Wildest Dreams: The United Democratic Front and the Transformation of South Africa by Ineke Van Kessel The first instance of necklacing occurred in March 1985 in the Eastern Cape township of KwaNobuhle.

Forms

plural
necklaces
past tense
necklaced
past participle
necklaced
present participle
necklacing
third person singular
necklaces
The neighbouring pagesAlphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.

Lexical content from Wiktionary, under CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source entry · Data version 2026-08-23

Rank among the words of the OpenSubtitles 2018 corpus — film and television subtitles, so spoken rather than written usage (CC BY-SA 3.0).