English

Verb

fall on someone's neck

1. (dated, idiomatic) To embrace someone affectionately or thankfully.
   • 1856, Charles Kingsley, The Heroes, Story III: Theseus:

     [W]hen Theseus saw him, his heart leapt into his mouth, and he longed to fall on his neck and welcome him.

   • 1910, William MacLeod Raine, Bucky O'Connor, ch. 15:

     If he expected either of them to fall on his neck and weep tears of gratitude at his pompous announcement, the colonel was disappointed.

   • 1920, Harold MacGrath, The Drums Of Jeopardy, ch. 24:

     I ought to fall on your neck with joy. . . . You are my father's friend, my mother's, mine.

   • 1990 March 18, Anne Tyler, "Review of Collected Stories of Wallace Stegner," New York Times (retrieved 14 May 2015):

     "[T]he moment your delinquent showed the slightest sign of decency . . . you fell on his neck as if he had rescued you from drowning."

   • 2012, Karen Templeton, Hanging by a Thread, ISBN 9781459246263, ch. 25 (Google preview):

     [A]fter falling on my neck and hugging me and calling me “cousin” like a character from a Jane Austen novel, . . . she sat me down.

Translations