Meaning
Exactly level in a race or contest, with neither side able to pull ahead; used for elections, polls, markets, teams and any close-run competition. Typically follows run or be: the parties have run neck and neck all year. It stresses a dead-even position rather than a narrow final win, which keeps it distinct from a photo finish or a nose margin. Usually preceded by run or be; hyphenate when used before a noun (a neck-and-neck race). Do not merge with this site's photo finish or front runner entries. References genuinely disagree on first use - 1672, 1779, 1799 - so the date is presented as disputed. Regional use: All English-speaking regions.
Origin
The image is from horse racing: two horses so evenly matched that their necks stay level and neither can head the other - Wiktionary glosses it as horses 'so even (headed for a tie) that their necks are side-by-side'. The dating is genuinely unsettled and the references disagree. Merriam-Webster gives a first known use of 1672. Wiktionary's earliest quotation is later: Charles Macklin's 1779 comedy Love a-la-mode has a rider recall 'we were neck and neck for three miles, as hard as we could lay leg to ground', and the Sporting Magazine of November 1825 describes horses that ran 'neck and neck' to the cords. Mental Floss places the earliest known horse-related written use at 1799 and shows how quickly the phrase went political: in July 1802 The Morning Post reported of the Kent contest that 'The three candidates are neck and neck.' The racing origin is not in dispute; any single first-use date is.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- neck-to-neck
- nip and tuck
Usage Examples
- The two candidates have stayed neck and neck in the polls since the campaign began.
- Going into the final lap the swimmers were neck and neck, separated by a fraction of a second.
- The airlines are neck and neck in the race to launch the first commercial service.