=Neck.= Calig´ula, the Roman emperor used to say, “Oh that the Roman people had but one neck, that I might cut it off at a blow!” I love the sex, and sometimes would reverse The tyrant’s wish, that, “mankind only had One neck, which he with one fell stroke might pierce.” Byron, _Don Juan_, vi. 27 (1824). =Neck or Nothing=, a farce by Garrick (1766). Mr. Stockwell promises to give his daughter in marriage to the son of Sir Harry Harlowe, of Dorsetshire, with a _dot_ of £10,000; but it so happens that the young man is privately married. The two servants of Mr. Belford and Sir Harry Harlowe try to get possession of the money, by passing off Martin (Belford’s servant) as Sir Harry’s son; but it so happens that Belford is in love with Miss Stockwell, and hearing of the plot through Jenny, the young lady’s-maid, arrests the two servants as vagabonds. Old Stockwell gladly consents to his marriage with Nancy, and thinks himself well out of the terrible scrape. =Nectaba´nus=, the dwarf at the cell of the hermit of Engaddi. Sir W. Scott, _The Talisman_ (time, Richard I.). =Nectar=, the beverage of the gods. It was white as cream, for when Hebê spilt some of it, the white arch of heaven, called the Milky Way, was made. The food of the gods was _ambrosia_. =Ned= (_Lying_), “the chimney-sweeper of Savoy,” that is, the duke of Savoy, who joined the allied army against France in the war of the Spanish Succession.--Dr. Arbuthnot, _History of John Bull_ (1712). =Negro´ni=, a princess, the friend of Lucrezia di Borgia. She invited the notables who had insulted the Borgia to a banquet, and killed them with poisoned wine.--Donizetti, _Lucrezia di Borgia_ (an opera, 1834). =Ne´gus=, sovereign of Abyssinia. Erco´co, or Erquico, on the Red Sea, marks the north-east boundary of this empire. The empire of Negus to his utmost port, Ercoco. Milton, _Paradise Lost_, xi. 397 (1665). =Nehemiah Holdenough=, a Presbyterian preacher.--Sir W. Scott, _Woodstock_ (time, commonwealth). =Neilson= (_Mr. Christopher_), a surgeon at Glasgow.--Sir W. Scott, _Rob Roy_ (time, George I.). =Neim´heid= (2 _syl._) employed four architects to build him a palace in Ireland; and, that they might not build another like it or superior to it for some other monarch, had them all secretly murdered.--O’Halloran, _History of Ireland_. ⁂ A similar story is told of Nômanal-Aôuar, king of Hirah, who employed Senna´mar to build him a palace. When finished, he cast the architect headlong from the highest tower, to prevent his building another to rival it.--D’Herbelot, _Bibliothèque Oriental_[TN-29] (1697).