wryneck

American  

[rahy-nek] / ˈraɪˌnɛk /

noun

1. Informal.

   1. torticollis.

   2. a person having torticollis.

2. any of several small Old World climbing birds of the subfamily Jynginae, of the woodpecker family, noted for the peculiar habit of twisting the head and neck.

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wryneck British  

/ ˈraɪˌnɛk /

noun

1. either of two cryptically coloured Old World woodpeckers, Jynx torquilla or J. ruficollis, which do not drum on trees

2. another name for torticollis

3. informal a person who has a twisted neck

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Etymology

Origin of wryneck

First recorded in 1575–85; wry + neck

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wryneck

A particularly unsettling development has the sister cities of St. Pete and Tampa at each other's wryneck throats.

From Time Magazine Archive

Snake′-bird, a darter: the wryneck; Snake′-eel, a long Mediterranean eel, its tail without a tail-fin.—adj.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

I have heard the wryneck calling in the oak at the end of the garden every morning this season before rising, and suspect, from his constant presence, that a nest will be built close by.

From The Hills and the Vale by Richard Jefferies

Last year the wryneck was a scarce bird in this neighbourhood; in all my walks I heard but two or three, and at long intervals.

From The Hills and the Vale by Richard Jefferies

All at once he remembered that he knew, or had known formerly, the wryneck very well, but he had never learnt its name.

From Birds in Town and Village by W. H. (William Henry) Hudson

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