Continuing Glossophilia’s 10-part series on bodily expressions.

We’ve gathered all the phrases and expressions we can possibly think of that make use of bodily parts in all their glory — and divided them into ten broad categories* descending from head to toe (and then some …). We’ve left out one- and two-word euphemistic adjectives and tried to avoid expressions that refer too literally to our actual limbs, organs or orifices; what follows are phrases that tend towards the metaphorical and poetic, even though some can also be taken more literally.

Here we have phrases using necks, throats and shoulders — those crucial structures that support our heads on our bodies. Coming next: idioms involving chests, breasts, and the heart. 

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Neck:

1. To stick one’s neck out

2. Up to my neck in something

3. Breathe down his neck

4. Get it in the neck

5. It’s a millstone/albatross around my neck

6. They’re neck and neck

7. It’s a pain in the neck

8. Dead from the neck up

9. I put my neck on the line

Throat:

1. To jump down his throat

2. To ram/force something down my throat

3. At each other’s throats

4. To cut his own throat / to cut someone’s / each other’s throats

5. It sticks in my throat (or gullet)

6. A frog in my throat

7. A lump in my throat

Shoulder:

1. To be head and shoulders above something

2. On the shoulders of giants

3. To shoulder the responsibility

4. To carry the weight of the world on one’s shoulders

5. To give someone the cold shoulder

6. She has a chip on her shoulder

7. That’s a weight off my shoulders

8. To square one’s shoulders

9. To stand shoulder to shoulder

10. An old head on young shoulders

11. A shoulder to cry on

12. Always looking over your shoulder

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* Categories:

I: Hair, heads & brains
II: Eyes & ears
III: Faces, noses & mouths, teeth, cheeks & chins
IV: Necks, throats & shoulders
V: Chests, breasts & hearts
VI: Arms & hands, fingers & thumbs
VII: Bellies & bottoms, hips, loins & backs
VIII: Legs, feet, toes & heels
IX: Blood, sweat & tears, skin & bones, nerves, muscles
X: Bodies & skeletons